


Layers of the Mind

by whiteraven1606



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Altered Mental States, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Assault, Attempted Sexual Assault, Background Het, Captivity, Complicated Relationships, Confusion, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Distrust, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Time, Fluff and Angst, Headaches & Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Injury, Internal Conflict, Kidnapping, M/M, Masturbation in Shower, Mental Anguish, Mental Health Issues, Multiple Personalities, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Past Sexual Abuse, Phobias, Polyamory Negotiations, Polyfidelity, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Hulk, Protectiveness, Rescue, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Denial, Sexual Confusion, Talking, Team Dynamics, Teambuilding, Teamwork, Threesome - M/M/M, Time Travel, World War II, Worry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-29
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-01-10 10:18:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 38,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1158477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteraven1606/pseuds/whiteraven1606
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Bruce are kidnapped, drugged, and pitted against each other. Bruce breaks his mind attempting to keep the Hulk from coming out and fighting Steve. In the aftermath of being rescued, healing is complicated by secrets and multiple personalities.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kidnapped

**Author's Note:**

> I put in as many of the tags as I could think of up front. I'm reusing an idea for Bruce about him having multiple personalities I used in the Loosely Connected series (with different/more alters).
> 
> Edit after Chapter 13: I wrote 20,000 words or so when I put up the tags this started with. Now I'm adding tags to include writing I did after I first started posting this.

****

Steve stopped against the side of the building he had been walking along and tried to find what was making him uneasy. He scanned the bustling crowd, but didn't see anyone out of place. Not that that meant anything if the watcher was a trained agent like Natasha or Clint. Either of them could shadow Steve well enough to only occasionally give him the sense of being watched. They'd appeared at his elbow often enough in the past.

Huffing at the thought of being the subject of their games again, Steve shifted his bag's strap further up his shoulder and he headed down the street to the parking garage he'd paid to park his motorbike in while he'd gone shopping for a present for Tony's birthday next week. The price for parking had been horrendous even by the future's... _today's_ inflated standards.

Using the windows he was passing to check around him, Steve couldn't find anyone in the reflections that seemed to be following him. The feeling spiked suddenly causing Steve to veer into a nearby corner grocery store.

Staring at the packages of pasta lining the shelf, Steve listened to the crowds outside the store's thin door. 

Steve pulled his phone from his pocket and frowned down at it. He touched the icon for JARVIS.

"Captain?"

"Hi, JARVIS." Steve swallowed, feeling stupid for resorting to bothering JARVIS.

"You sound stressed, Captain. How may I help?"

"I, uh..." Steve bit his lip for a moment. "I think I'm being followed, but it doesn't feel like any of the team."

"Neither Agent Romanoff or Barton are currently on the same continent as you, Captain."

Mentally shifting gears, Steve moved towards the back of the tiny store he was in. "I'm being paranoid."

"I have found that you are rarely wrong in your situational assessments."

Steve blinked and peeked out the backdoor checking down the alley and up the sides of the buildings. Finding nothing, hearing nothing, Steve stepped out and turned towards the parking garage. "Thanks for that. I just...I'm not even sure..."

The sound came from up and behind him, a _pun-fft_ thud noise. Steve turned just in time to watched a canister hit the ground at his feet and hiss. Steve kicked it away and went down on one knee as a dart zipped in to embed itself in the back of his arm.

"JARVIS..." He reached for it as several more darts joined the first on his skin and Steve frowned sluggishly as his hearing went wobbly, the faraway sound of JARVIS' frantic voice fading as Steve slumped to the ground.

****

Bruce ignored the feel of eyes on him as he checked over the fruits looking for something in season that JARVIS thought Tony might actually tolerate. "You have to peel his peaches?"

"The fuzz is an undesirable texture on his tongue."

"Uh." Bruce angled the phone's camera to look at the pluots. "What about these?"

"Those are acceptable."

"Alright." Bruce picked several and moved on to the lettuce. "Thanks again for allowing me to shop for once, JARVIS. It isn't anything against how you order things. I like having a reason to make myself leave the labs."

"I do not dictate your actions, Dr. Banner."

Bruce frowned at the carrots. "No, I didn't mean..." He picked a handful of the purple ones and put them in the basket. "I know Tony has you watching out for me."

"There are protocols for each member of the Avengers."

Bruce glanced around to see if anyone had heard that. "Isn't it more than that? At least for me?" He sighed and stared at the tomatoes. "For what I can...become?"

"You have never been only that to Sir."

"Uh." Bruce blinked several times to clear his suddenly watery eyes. "Thanks, JARVIS." Bruce frowned down at his phone when JARVIS didn't respond. "JAR-"

"Captain Roger is currently under attack."

Bruce put down the basket of food and headed for the front of the store. He caught the arm of a store worker. "I had to leave a basket in produce. I'm sorry. Family emergency."

The worker nodded and waved him off. "No problem, sir."

Bruce nodded his thanks and hurried out. He headed for the nearest corner. "JARVIS, do we know where he is?"

"He has been rendered unconscious and is currently being moved."

Bruce hailed a cab. "They'll have to push more sedative within a few minutes if they don't want him shrugging it off."

A sudden hand yanked his phone from him and Bruce started to turn to see who had just crushed his phone against the curb as a needle hit him in the external carotid artery. 

"Thank you for that information, Doctor Banner."

Bruce gasped for air as the agent they'd hit him with crawled cold tendrils up the side of his head, robbing him of his ability to focus. Another needle slid hot and sharp into the other side of his neck into his internal carotid and Bruce whimpered as he went down under the combined onslaught.

****

JARVIS simultaneously put in for the basket of food Bruce had collected be bought and delivered to the Tower as he turned the tracking units full bore on Steve's current position. They were binding him and had injected him again as they loaded him into a plain panel van.

JARVIS was just starting to respond to Doctor Banner's statement as his mobile unit suddenly ceased transmission. JARVIS accessed the surveillance from the intersection's traffic cameras and quickly dispatched another set of mobile tracking units as Bruce crumpled to the sidewalk, only to be swept up by several men and into a van nearly identical to the one Steve had been loaded into.

Pulling facial pictures, JARVIS began running the relevant searches as he sounded the alerts to the remaining Avengers. Turning on the tracking beacons in the gear of Agents Romanoff and Barton, JARVIS quickly double checked that they were in the locations that had been predicted by mission updates that morning.

"JARVIS, how bad is it?"

JARVIS threw up maps for the locations of Steve and Bruce as he put a smaller map for the Agents and another from New Mexico for Thor. "It appears that only the Captain and Doctor Banner have been targeted."

"Uh." Tony pulled the map for Bruce wider and shoved at the intersection where he'd been injected. "They drop the needles?"

"No, Sir. They have not dropped items at either kidnapping scene."

Tony shrugged out of his suit jacket. "Well, this is one way to get me out of a board meeting." He pulled up the video playback from the traffic cameras. "Who was Bruce talking to?"

"We were conversing as he shopped, Sir."

Tony glanced up at JARVIS' nearest camera housing. "You're doing good, J."

The mobile units all went down in a burst of electromatic energy. "Ow."

"J?" Tony's fingers flew over his virtual keyboard. "Oh, shit. Did they really just blow the power on twenty blocks?"

"It would appear so." JARVIS pulled the real-time satellite imaging up and tried to pinpoint the kidnappers' vans in the light afternoon traffic. "Sir..."

"Shit." Tony ran his fingers through his hair. "Okay, okay. We'll get them back." He straightened his shoulders. "Get the rest of us here, J."

"They are already on their way, Sir."

"Good." Tony pulled up the pictures of the kidnappers and looked them over. "Don't recognize them. Have we gotten any threats on either of them? More than normal?"

"No, Sir. Captain Rogers was concerned before he was attacked and had contacted me to ask as to the locations of Agents Romanoff and Barton."

Tony flicked up the facial recognition searches. "They've been messing with him lately. Natasha thinks Steve is going to go apeshit on us or something."

"Eavesdropping again, Sir?"

Tony shrugged. "He has flashbacks and his nightmares send him across town from that dingy little apartment of his to perch on the penthouse couch to stare at the floor. You know that." Tony pulled up the list of items in Bruce's basket as the satellites looked for the kidnappers' vans. "No peaches? I thought Bruce liked them."

"You do not like the texture of the fuzz."

"Yeah, but still." Tony flicked another search screen to the forefront as Pepper stormed in.

"What happened?"

Tony pointed at one of the maps. "Steve and Bruce both got kidnapped."

Pepper looked over the spread out information windows. "Have you called the police?"

Tony ducked his head. "Uhm...It didn't occur to me?"

"There is a unit for each crime scene currently enroute." JARVIS adjusted the search range to allow for the extended movement from the timeframe lengthening. "Sir, I do not believe the kidnappers will be able to contain Captain Rogers for long."

"He's still human." Tony rubbed the side of his face. "Supersoldier, sure, but human all the same."

****


	2. Drugged

****

When Steve finally surfaced it was to lights far too bright and nothing smelling remotely familiar. There had been several near wakings like this when they'd been breaking him out of the ice and Steve squirmed, trying to move to prove to himself that he wasn't trapped. That he wasn't _there_.

He couldn't move far, his arms wrapped in something and wound around his torso. Steve started to pant as his panic chased the fuzzy feelings around his brain.

"Ah. Awake, are we?"

Steve jerked his head towards the voice, but the lights were far too bright for him to see past them. "Why am I here?"

Cold fingers trailed down the side of his head to trace around his ear. Steve pulled away from it only to be injected with something stinging hot just under his ear.

"You're Captain America, aren't you? The perfect soldier, but not the most impressive human weapon, am I right?"

Steve blinked against the crawling heat from the injection. "What are you talking about?"

The cold fingers tucked their tips under the edge of his shirt near his collarbone. "By my calculations you'll be immune to the sedatives in only a few more hours. We'll be using this lovely paralytic on you until the arena is ready." The cold fingers traced up his neck to tap against Steve's numbing cheek. "Then you die."

****

Bruce struggled against the drugs, trying to hold down the Hulk's need to _protect_ and working to focus his blurry eyes enough to see who they'd just put in the cell with him. Bruce pulled himself closer and leaned his head against the person's ribs as nausea clawed at him.

Pushing himself up, Bruce found Steve staring with panicked eyes up at him. Bruce frowned and touched Steve's chin.

"Steve?"

Steve's eyes rolled franticly around, but the flat expression didn't so much as twitch.

Bruce forced himself up onto his knees. "Okay. It'll be alright, Steve. Try to stay calm."

Steve looked at him and then flicked his eyes towards the door and looked at Bruce again.

Bruce pushed down the nausea and rubbed at the injection site fading from the side of Steve's neck. "We'll get out of this. Tony won't like us going missing." He patted Steve's chest. "They'll come for us."

The cell started to fill with gas. Bruce tangled his fingers in Steve's lax ones and held his breath for as long as possible before he succumbed to the gas.

****

Steve woke and tried to flex his fingers...toes...nothing moved. Straining his ears, Steve listened to Bruce's breathy pants coming from a corner. Mentally frowning, Steve tried to force his head to turn so he could see his teammate. His friend. Steve strained against the drug's hold to no avail.

There were cold fingers on Steve's jawline and his head was turned towards Bruce, who was huddled in the corner, tucked down as tight as he could get.

"You could kill him, couldn't you, Captain America? Put the monster out of his misery."

Bruce flinched at the word 'monster' and tucked his face into his knees.

The cold fingers trailed along Steve's ear down to his shirt collar. "I weren't expecting this sort of side effect from the gas. I will have to inject him from now on. I'm told it'll be another hour until everything is prepared." Another needle slid into his neck. "Until then we should let you have something to fight, uhm, Captain?"

Steve's body lit up with fire. He couldn't move as the man went over to Bruce, who was whimpering, his face tucked down between his knees. 

The man ran his fingers over Bruce's hair before injecting Bruce with something purple. Bruce twitched and the man pulled on Bruce's arms until he sat up and leaned limply back into the corner. 

Steve tried to ignore his body's burning to reach Bruce as the man sliced Bruce's shirt off him.

****

Bruce struggled against the feeling he was supposed to be asleep. There was someone holding his place, but it wasn't the Hulk. Bruce pushed hard and found himself looking out his own eyes, but not _there_ as Sterns, _damn Sterns_ , sliced into his shirt.

"You know I worked hard to develop the serum's benefits from your blood and then you wanted to just _burn_ it, Doctor."

Bruce could feel the trembling of the person that was holding him back. His mouth moved for this other person without Bruce's involvement. "You were supposed to help."

Sterns grinned into Bruce's face. "I was helping. I was helping the world."

The other presence in Bruce's head retreated as the fuzziness of the injection started to spread. Bruce felt alone, empty, and weak as Sterns turned back to Steve.

Sterns checked Steve's pulse. "The Hulk ruined everything, but no one will take him down, will they, Doctor? No one except Captain America."

Bruce yawned as the latest drug took a deeper hold. "Steve wouldn't try to kill the other guy."

Sterns traced fingertips along Steve's cheekbone. "Not in his right mind, perhaps. Dosed with my serum is a different matter entirely."

****

Bruce jolted awake as he hit hard packed dirt. He rolled to his knees and shook his head. His shirt was missing and his pants were torn through one knee. Bruce took in his surroundings as Steve was dropped in near the middle of the enclosure.

Flexing his fingers, Bruce made his way over to Steve. "Cap?"

Steve groaned as Bruce shook him.

Bruce frowned as the weird smell of Steve's body made itself known. It wasn't a sick smell, but it wasn't the right smell for Steve. It wasn't the smell he and the other guy had memorized. Bruce patted Steve down to check for broken bones. "Steve?"

They'd dressed Steve in a horrible impression of Steve's uniform. Bruce looked around, but there was no shield in sight.

Bruce turned back as Steve's hand grabbed Bruce's wrist in a tight hold. "Steve?"

****

It was too hot. Too loud with the voice of...enemy above him. Grabbing the enemy's wrist, he held tight and was pleased with the flare of fright from the lovely smell of the enemy. Maybe not an enemy. He rolled up onto his knees as the man, the prize, pulled sharply away from him.

He chased after the prize as he scampered away. Grinning at the prospect of a hunt, he rolled his shoulders to try to help the burn and sniffed the air for the scent of the prize.

****

Bruce pulled away from Steve and ran. It wasn't normal-Steve that had woken. Bruce scrambled up a structure to try to evade Steve as he chased after Bruce. It was almost playful the way Steve was bounding along after him.

Grabbing the edge of the platform he was on, Bruce swung down and hit Steve square in the chest with his heels. Steve went down with an oomph and rolled right over onto his feet. He grinned savagely at Bruce before flipping up onto a platform and pouncing on Bruce from above.

Steve leaned in a took several sniffs of Bruce's skin before licking delicately at the base of Bruce's neck.

"Steve." Bruce held still as he waited for an opening. "Steve, try to think for me."

Steve sniffed again and shifted his weight on Bruce.

That gave Bruce just enough leverage to get his knee up and he kneed Steve as he pressed his thumb as hard as he could against the side of Steve's larynx. Steve bucked with a cut off roar and Bruce rolled away.

He got to his feet and ran, turning the first corner he could, then another, and a third before climbing up onto a platform. Bruce tucked himself into a corner to give himself a moment to think.

****

The prize hurt him and he rubbed at his hot flesh as he listened for the prize's sounds. The prize had been smelling scared and he _liked_ the smell and the thought of what he'd get from the prize.

His body's heat was rising and he stripped off his shirt as he became even hotter as he looked and listened for the prize to reveal himself.

****


	3. Fighting

****

Bruce watched Steve prowl around below him as he hid near the top of one of the platforms. Bruce pushed down the other guy's desire to get out. To fight for them. Bruce could feel someone else pressing against him along with the other guy. His head was starting to pound.

****

As he got hotter, he started to get mad at the prize. Why did he hide? He wanted the prize to come out. To come to him. He'd show the prize that it was wrong to hide. He made fists with his burning hands. The prize would learn.

****

Bruce saw it the moment Steve hit his scent pool. Steve's head snapped around and before Bruce could even start to tense Steve was on him.

Bruce tucked, hiding his face as Steve punched him again and again. Each blow was more powerful than the last as Steve beat on him. Bruce took shallow breaths as Steve concentrated on Bruce's ribs. "Steve."

Steve rolled Bruce over onto his back and forced Bruce to uncurl. He lay down on Bruce and pressed into Bruce with his weight. "Mine."

"Steve, please." Bruce pushed at Steve's chest, but Steve was unmoving as he buried his nose in Bruce's neck.

Bruce shoved down the other guy as he tried to push Bruce out of the way. "Please, please, Steve."

Steve's hips ground down against him. "Mine."

Bruce bit his lip and brought his hand up beside Steve's head. "Sorry, Steve." He hit Steve's ear as hard as he could and wiggled away as Steve roared.

****

His prize hurt him and he caught him as he struggled to get away. He dug his fingers into his prize's feet and made bones snap to keep his prize where he should be. Right under him where his prize's coolness could sooth his own heat.

He pulled his prize back to him and held his prize firmly as he marked his prize to show him he was to stay.

****

Bruce winced and bit the inside of his cheek as Steve broke bones in his feet. It made him dizzy with pain for long enough that Steve was on him again as Bruce tried to relax in Steve's too tight hold. "Steve...Captain Rogers."

Steve mouthed Bruce's collarbone and bit at him.

Bruce took carefully measured breaths through the pain. "Rogers!"

****

His heat flared at the noise. It hurt and his ear throbbed from his prize's attempt to flee from him. He silenced his prize's noise with several blows to his prize's face and head. The heat made him itch and he rubbed himself against his prize to try to make it go away. He wanted nothing more than to smell his prize's rightfully terror filled scent, but the heat made him want to destroy.

He grinned down at his prize and squeezed him. He could get more of his prize's lovely scent if he hurt him. He pressed his thumb into his prize's ribs.

****

Bruce grunted as Steve pushed on one of his bruised ribs. "Steve, stop, please."

Steve grinned as he rocked his hips and held Bruce's wrists in one hand as he prodded at Bruce's ribs with the other. Every touch hurt and Bruce gasped or groaned as Steve aggravated all of his injured ribs. Steve leaned in and smelled Bruce's neck again.

Bruce pressed up with his hips to rub against Steve's groin. "You want something else, don't you?"

****

His prize's whimpering groans were exquisite and then his prize pressed up against him with a panted question that was too much for his heat smothered brain. He liked the shift in his prize's scent so he moved his hands to his prize's hips to rub them together.

****

Bruce stayed relaxed as Steve humped against him and then did it again. Bruce waited another moment and then boxed Steve's ears as hard as he could. Steve reared up with a scream. Bruce rolled and crawled away as fast as he could, the pain in his feet shooting knives up his shins.

Bruce wedged himself back under one of the platforms' braces and pulled himself into as tight a ball as he could manage. He could feel the other guy still pressing to take over. Along with someone else. Bruce shoved it all down and tried to slow his breathing as he listened to Steve growling somewhere in front of him.

****

His prize had hurt him again and he was determined to punish his prize as soon as he found him. He followed the tracks in the dirt and found his prize had hid in the corner of the metal towers. He peered into the hideyhole of his prize and grinned at the picture of prey his prize, no, his prey, was.

He rubbed at the heat of his chest and tried to follow his prey into the hideyhole. It was too small for him to reach his prey. He started to rip chucks out of the hideyhole to get at his prey.

****

Bruce pressed back against the wall as Steve ripped shreds out of the structure. "Steve!"

Steve growled and yanked a support beam out of joint as he tried to reach Bruce.

Bruce turned his head up to listen to the tower start to groan. "Shit. Steve!" He squirmed his way around to his knees, held out his hand, and tried to get Steve to listen. "You have to stop. Stop!"

Steve growled louder and grabbed Bruce's outstretched arm.

****

He caught his prey and pulled it roughly out into the open. He dragged it along behind him as he looked for a clear spot so the prey couldn't hide again. He rubbed at the side of his head where the heat was pooling.

He pinned the prey down and stripped the prey's few clothskins out of the way. It was _his_ prey to do with as he saw fit. He took deep sniffs of the exposed skin of his prey and pressed firm fingers to each of his prey's deserved injuries.

He wrapped his hand around the prey's throat and listened to the rasp of the prey's airways as it breathed. He leaned in to watch the flutter of the prey's pulse.

****

Bruce hit Steve on the arm, shoulder, and finally the side of the head as he started to choke him. He kept flailing even as his airway constricted as Steve pressed him hard into the dirt. Bruce could feel himself fading and someone slipped into his place, leaving Bruce only able to watch.

Bruce's body tensed and he suddenly was aroused by Steve's hold on his neck. Bruce struggled weakly as the presence in the forefront of his body rubbed gently at Steve's arm.

****

His prey surrendered, but at the same time began to smell different. Sharper and more spicy. He loosened his grip as his heat responded to the change in his prey's smell. He buried his mouth against his prey's skin.

****

Trapped inside his head, Bruce struggled against the displacement by the presence that was petting Steve and making little pleased noises with Bruce's throat. Steve half-growled as he put his mouth against Bruce's pulse point. The presence wrapped Bruce's arms around Steve's shoulders.

"That all you got?"

Steve tensed against him and then he was rearing back and throwing punches.

The presence in Bruce's place vanished, folding itself away somewhere Bruce couldn't touch. Bruce was slammed into feeling _everything_ that was happening to him. The other guy pushed forward, desperate to get out to smash the person that was hurting them. Bruce curled to his side, trying to hide his face from the blows, and holding onto his control with the last shreds of his strength.

****


	4. Located

****

The prey taunted him even as it comforted the heat boiling through him. He beat the prey to make it know that he was in charge. That he...was in control. He paused, shaking his head as the prey curled up under him. Something was...wrong. He flexed his hands and settled them on his prey's cool skin and tried to think beyond the all encompassing heat.

****

Bruce stayed curled up even when Steve suddenly stopped with his hands on Bruce's side. The man felt like he was burning up. Bruce peeked out from behind his hands and watched as Steve blinked several times, shaking his head.

"Steve?"

Steve blinked again and focused on him. He frowned and patted Bruce gently. "Mine?"

Bruce licked his lip where it had gotten split. "Yes." He stroked his thumb along Steve's inner wrist. "Yours. Okay?"

Steve's frown deepened and then Sterns appeared behind them and jabbed Steve in the neck with a loaded needle as Bruce struggled to get out from under Steve to reach Sterns.

****

His. His prey, his...prize? He watched his prize's thumb stroke him, taming the heat. Making him...feel. He didn't have to prove his prize was his if his prize knew who he belonged with, did he? He tried to think.

A needle hit him and he roared as liquid flame tore up his neck into his head. He batted away the intruder that had appeared at his back. The fire engulfed him and he turned, trying to find his prize. His prize could tame the flames.

****

Bruce winced as Sterns struck a platforms' support pillar hard. He scrambled over as Steve yanked at the syringe stuck in his neck. Bruce checked Sterns for a pulse and began checking pockets as Steve started looking around with glazed eyes.

Coming up with only more syringes, none of them labeled, Bruce stripped Sterns' lab jacket off him and fled, forcing himself to use his feet even though they were throbbing in excruciating pain. He got around the corner of the platform as he heard Steve growling behind him.

He leaned against the platform's pillar and quickly stripped the arms off the lab jacket. He steeled himself as Steve started to follow him from the clearing.

Bruce charged Steve as he came around the corner. They went down in a heap and Bruce wrapped the arm of the lab coat around Steve's neck. He twisted it tight as he took the blows to his back as he pinned Steve's other arm with his own weight. He held on grimly until Steve started to fade, his hits becoming less focused and weaker as he passed out.

Bruce quickly laid Steve over on his stomach and pulled his arms up behind his back. He tied the other sleeve around Steve's wrists, far too tightly, and then tied that to the loop around Steve's neck. He checked Steve's pulse and then flopped back against the support pillar for a few moments.

He crawled from there to sit on Steve's hips, putting his weight on the leverage point for Steve's lean body. Bruce groaned as he tucked his throbbing feet closer against Steve's thighs. Everything hurt. He pulled the rest of the lab coat over and went through the syringes to double check they weren't labeled with anything.

****

He floated up from the hellfires to burning in his neck and hands. He shifted and froze when the burning wrapped itself tight around his neck. His prize was above him somewhere and the gentle cool touch along his neck near the burn was comforting.

He tried to turn himself over, but there was cold weight on him holding him down in the flames. He struggled against it and heard cloth ripping.

****

Bruce crawled away as fast as he could as Steve thrashed behind him. He should have known the cloth wouldn't hold him for long. Bruce pulled himself up on a low platform and laid down, panting. He hurt and he was so tired.

The other guy shoved at him and Bruce weakly pushed back. He couldn't lose control. He couldn't let the other guy smash Steve when it wasn't Steve's fault.

****

He pulled the burn off his neck and looked around for his prize. He wanted his flames tamed, the comfort of his prize was very attractive in the face of the heat he was burning from.

He found his prize laid out on a raised flat spot, but something was wrong. His prize was convulsing, parts of his skin flushing green. He wrapped his hand around his prize's ankle and tried to remember what the green could be. He'd seen it before. Before the heat. The memory was somewhere...before.

****

Hulk grabbed up sick Starman and made sure to trap his arms against his sides inside Hulk's fist. He sat, holding Starman and panting as his feet hurt. Everything hurt, like Puny Bruce had gone too long before calling for Hulk's help.

Hulk huffed and took Starman with him as he went looking for the Bighead that had hurt them. Hurt Starman by making him sick. Hurt Puny Bruce by making him go too long without Hulk's smash. Hurt Brucey by making him come out of his safe hiding place inside Puny Bruce.

Everything hurt and Hulk would make Bighead pay. Hulk ignored Starman's struggling and held him high so he couldn't kick Hulk with his swinging feet.

Bighead was just sitting up, shaking himself from where Starman had half-smashed him. Hulk grinned down at Bighead.

"No smart."

Bighead held up his hands and started to say something, but Hulk didn't care. He backhanded Bighead away and shook Starman just enough to make him quit kicking. 

Hulk bounded after Bighead and hit him again. He poked Bighead with a finger and snorted when Bighead gave a faint groan. Smashed enough. Puny Bruce might need Red Liar to get fix from Bighead for sick Starman so Hulk not smash flat. Hulk stood up straight and looked Starman over. Sick and hot.

Too hot for Starman normal. Hulk sniffed Starman and frowned at the smell. It was sour and wrong for Starman. Sick, sick, no good. He picked up the whitecloth with the sick making tubes. Puny Bruce would want for fixing Starman's sick.

Hulk tucked Starman close and grunted as Starman kicked again.

Sighing, Hulk held onto Starman's feet with his other hand and pushed off with his own feet to get them out of the Bighead's home. Hulk needed to find Spaceman so Spaceman could hold sick Starman still for Puny Bruce to fix.

****

Tony ignored the arrival of Natasha and Clint as he tracked every panel van in the city until he could be sure they weren't the right panel vans. Thor showed up shortly after that and suddenly Tony and JARVIS had a helping hand with data sorting as Jane took over looking at all the cars that had come out of the parking garage one of the panel vans had disappeared into.

Coffee appeared at his elbow from the chattery young woman that had arrived with Thor and Jane. Tony gulped it down between keystrokes. 

JARVIS threw up an alert in the middle of everything as Tony's email for Stark Industries got a suspicious uplink. Tony shifted it to the side and linked through to the webpage and then everything stopped.

"J, can you trace it back?"

"Working, sir."

Tony moved the video from the side to the middle and pushed all the searches out of the way. In the video Steve chased after a half-clothed Bruce around a empty arena of some sort Tony didn't remember ever having seen before.

Natasha leaned in over Tony's shoulder. "Steve is compromised."

Nodding, Tony flicked up the video analysis software and pulled the vitals of both of them from the subtle flushing of the capillaries in their faces. He ran that into a window below the video as Steve punched Bruce in the ribs before Bruce boxed Steve's ear and skittered away.

"The video stream is being passed between several anonymous hosting services, Sir."

"Keep after it, J." Tony flicked the video into a bigger window and pulled up the background without Steve and Bruce in a smaller side window. He still didn't recognize the arena. He started a search for the dimensions of the arena given from the proportions of it against Steve and Bruce's reference measurements.

"Shit."

Tony looked up at Clint's exclamation and grimaced as Steve squeezed Bruce's feet. "Definitely compromised." He glanced at the heart rate tracking for Bruce and huffed. "Bruce is trying to keep Hulk down."

Thor loomed closer. "Even the good Captain could not hold out against the Doctor's Warrior."

Tony nodded as the arena search came up empty. "Bruce and I have a theory that Hulk gets stronger the madder he is. I really don't want to see it tested against Cap."

Clint frowned as on the video Steve held Bruce down and humped against him. "How close are we to figuring out where they are?"

Tony flicked his fingers at the various searches and rubbed the back of his neck. "The signal is bouncing. It's going to take a while."

Natasha put her hand on Tony's shoulder. "We'll get them back. Keep working."

Tony ducked his head and tried not to listen to the video as he worked with JARVIS to trace the stream back to the source. Not listening wasn't really working as the noises Bruce kept drawing his attention.

Bruce's voice was _different_ as he taunted Steve. Tony's head snapped up and he frowned at the weird too green hazel of Bruce's eyes as he sneered at Steve. He tensed as Bruce's eyes changed as Steve knelt up and started pounding Bruce with his fists.

JARVIS worked by himself as Tony stared at the video as suddenly Steve slowed, stopped, and rested his open hands on Bruce's bruising side. Then, someone dropped down behind Steve and hit him with an injection as Bruce struggled to reach the newcomer.

Tony squinted and then jerked upright. "Sterns. Fuck, that's Sterns." The searches shifted and within moments they had a narrowed area and less than a minute after that Tony had a location for the video stream's source.

"Oh, shit."

Tony looked up from calling the armor to see Bruce transform into Hulk. "Come on, come on."

Natasha looked at him from the corner of her eye as Hulk grabbed up Steve. "He's going to kill him."

Tony let the armor settle around himself as the others stared at it self-assembling. "I'll get there." He blasted out and into the air as behind him JARVIS gave the location to the rest of the team. Thor caught up and flew along with him as he pushed the thrusters to the limit to get him upstate.

****


	5. Banner

****

Hulk smashed out of Bighead's home. He was careful to use his shoulder to smash since Starman was busy trying to kick and was not helping. Outside, Hulk looked for Spaceman's Tower, but didn't see it so he looked at the moon and decided which way was not towards COLD. He never wanted to go there again. Spaceman's Tower had to be away from COLD. He bounded into the air, taking the still Starman with him.

Hulk landed in a grassy field as he heard the whoosh boom of Spaceman zooming go past. He turned back the way he'd come and watched Spaceman turn tight and come towards him. Hulk held the now crying Starman in his hands as Spaceman dropped to land in front of him followed by TooLoud Hair. Hulk lifted Starman towards Spaceman. "Fix?"

Spaceman flipped his falseface up and looked from Starman to Hulk and back again. "You knew something was wrong with him."

Hulk nodded, put Starman down, watched him turn over to hide against the ground, and let TooLoud Hair put the Heavy Pokey Sting down on Starman's back. "Smell wrong. Sick. Bighead make sick." He held out the whitecloth. "Bighead no name sick making tubes."

Spaceman took the whitecloth and grinned up at Hulk. "You did really good, Hulk."

Hulk smiled with his teeth and sat down near crying Starman. "Spaceman help Puny Bruce fix Brucey?"

Spaceman blinked. "Brucey?"

Hulk touched Starman's sticky up hair. "Brucey brave, but not. Normal he hide in Puny Bruce." He looked at Starman. "Tell Brucey that Starman sick?"

Spaceman patted Hulk's arm. "I'll tell him when I get to talk to him. Sound good?"

Hulk nodded and narrowed his eyes at TooLoud Hair. "No smash sick Starman."

TooLoud Hair shook his head, making his long hair flop. "No, Warrior Hulk. I will not harm the good Captain."

Between them, Starman cried harder, heaving sobs where he hid his face in his hands.

Hulk stroked his fingers down Starman's back, avoiding the Heavy Pokey Sting. "Puny Bruce fix sick now." Hulk huffed and lay down so Puny Bruce could come out to fix. He looked at Spaceman because Puny Bruce listened to Tony-inside. "Tell Puny Bruce Hulk no stupid."

Spaceman nodded, his eyes serious. "I'll tell him."

Hulk nodded and let himself shrink.

****

Bruce lay staring at the sky as Tony looked down at him with the armor's faceplate flipped up. "I killed him, didn't I?"

Tony's eyebrows went up and then he scowled. "You don't remember anything from the Big Guy?"

Bruce closed his eyes and listened to the ugly sobbing off to one side. He rolled slowly onto his side and opened his eyes to stare at Steve being held down by Mjolnir. "Wh-What happened?"

Steve's shoulders curled tighter and the sobbing Bruce had thought was because he'd killed Steve was actually from Steve himself. Bruce pushed himself up and ignored his own aches to crawl towards Steve.

"Where did I hurt him?" 

Thor suddenly was beside him trying to help, but he was _huge_ and Bruce shoved away, pushing, needing to escape. Thor backed up, his bare hands visible as the air filled with whimpering cries that didn't make sense to Bruce.

Tony appeared at Bruce's back. "Easy, easy there."

Bruce twisted and something gave way in his battered head and he slipped away.

****

Tony flinched as Bruce's eyes flashed to glowing green, but the whimpering stopped. He held still as Bruce looked around himself and then dusted off his bare knees.

"Sorry about this. He's a little muddled." The glowing green eyes turned from Tony to look at Steve. "We didn't hurt him, did we?"

Tony scrapped his teeth across his lower lip as he shook his head. "I don't think so. He was drugged, but Hulk didn't smash him."

Grinning, he pushed himself to his feet and flexed each one carefully. "Good." He looked from Thor to Tony and back again. "Oh, yes. So sorry. You may call me Banner." He brushed down his bare chest and straightened the remnants of his pants on his hips.

"Okay." Tony motioned to Steve. "Thor, lift up your hammer so we can get a look at Cap."

Steve hunched tighter to the ground. "No."

Banner moved closer and laid a soft hand to Steve's head. "You have to face what your body did. Hiding only delays it. Up you get."

Thor lifted his hammer out of the way and Steve sat up just enough to curl into a ball, his dirty face tear streaked. 

He stared at Banner with solemn eyes. "I hurt you...him."

Banner shrugged and started to pry Steve's arms from around his knees to check each one for breaks. "We have often been hurt. You have tried to be nice to us in the past." He let Steve curl back up tight as he ran careful fingers along Steve's knees down his shins. "I've not told Bruce about any of the rest of us even after Hulk."

They turned their heads as a quintjet came lower and hovered over them. 

Steve ducked his head down to his knees. "I'm dangerous."

Banner patted Steve's head. "Everything is dangerous given the right trigger."

****

Tony held himself carefully as they loaded Steve onto a stretcher and into the quintjet. Steve didn't fight them, but he didn't help either. Banner settled against the other wall of their transport as Thor hovered, looming.

Clint took Banner in stride, but Natasha had frowned and ignored them all on the ride to the Tower.

Tony followed Steve's stretcher into the Tower as the armor shed itself from him.

Banner watched a leg plate fly down the hall before raising an eyebrow at Tony. "Mental connection?"

Tony shrugged. "Work in progress." He reached out slowly to touch Banner. "Bruce is in there?"

Banner blinked. "He's sleeping." Banner smirked. "He had a bad day." He gestured the direction Steve's stretcher had disappeared to. "Steve is going to blame himself far more than even Bruce."

Tony rubbed the side of his face. "Yeah." He reached for Banner again. "Uhm..."

Banner stepped closer. "Go ahead and touch. I know you're tactile when we've been hurt even when it is healed by the Hulk's appearance."

Tony ran gentle fingers down Banner's arms. "I...yeah. It hurts you even if it doesn't last."

Banner nodded and sighed as Tony ran his soft touch along Banner's ribs. "We ache for days after." He lifted one bare foot and wiggled his toes. "Ghost hurts."

Tony nodded. "You keep saying 'we' when you talk." He veered around a corner and headed down another hallway.

Banner followed Tony. "I know us all. We've shared with Bruce for a very long time."

"Yeah." Tony glanced at Banner as they entered a bedroom. "Alters, right?"

"I believe that is the current preferred term." Banner shucked the remnants of his pants as Tony held out a new pair towards him. "You do not seem surprised."

"I, ah, might have suspected." Tony held out a shirt. "Bruce does this thing with his glasses. Off, on, sometimes needs them, sometimes doesn't even realize he just read something he ought to need them to read."

Banner smiled as he pulled on the offered shirt. "Yes, one of us still has Bruce's original vision and we are almost all interested in the work we do."

Tony leaned against the dresser as Banner buttoned the new pants closed. "Can I ask a question that might upset you?"

Banner looked at Tony and then at his hands. "You are someone we try to please, so, ask."

Frowning, Tony crossed his arms. "What is Brucey for?"

Banner stilled the wringing of his hands. "We have a few single purpose selves. Brucey is one of those." He turned his glowing eyes up to look directly at Tony. "Brucey only came out during sexual abuse."

Tony swallowed and nodded slowly. "Bruce doesn't remember, does he?"

Banner shrugged as he went back to wringing his hands. "Bruce is not required to remember all the things we have endured." He looked at Tony again. "You will not tell Captain Steve of the singular purpose of Brucey."

Tony lifted his chin. "Why not?"

Banner crowded Tony against the dresser. "We are not broken and we will not see Captain Steve broken for something he could not change."

Tony gently cupped Banner's shoulders. "What about Brucey?"

Banner frowned. "Swear to us you won't tell Captain Steve."

"Alright." Tony covered Banner's wringing hands with his own. "If Steve doesn't figure it out on his own, I won't tell him. Now answer my question, please."

Visibly deflating, Banner sagged against Tony's chest. "He is near the surface instead of sleeping like he has. We're worried. Monster and Brucey are intertwined and Hulk is against them, tucked tight together as their jobs are always closely needed." Banner frowned. "Until Hulk's current name was given to him. Now the other two sleep more deeply when only Hulk is called forward."

"We'll see more of the alters, then?"

Banner hid his face in the familiar expanse of Tony's neck and shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"Hey." Tony jostled Banner until he lifted his head. "Hey, you...none of you has anything to apologize for." Tony brushed Banner's bangs out of his face. "Bruce is okay, right?"

Banner nodded. "Sleeping."

"Okay." Tony gave Banner a little push towards the bed. "Rest while I sort out Steve, okay?"

Banner frowned and crawled onto the bed. "Remind him we aren't mad at him, please?"

Tony rubbed his hand slowly over Banner's shoulder blades. "I'll make sure to mention it."

****


	6. Steve

****

Steve kept still as he was shifted from the gurney to his own bed. He could see his shield against the wall where he'd left it when he'd gone shopping. Steve curled onto his side and ignored Natasha pulling at his shoulder.

Clint climbed over him and tucked his face in front of Steve's. "You in there?"

Steve squeezed his eyes shut. "Please, go away."

A wet cloth swept up the side of his neck making Steve startle. He opened his eyes to glare at Natasha wiping at him again.

"Go away."

Natasha's eyebrows leveled and she deliberately swiped at his skin again. "That isn't what you need."

Steve didn't really care what he 'needed' in that moment. He started to push them away, but the sick memory of hitting Bruce came over him and he froze, panting.

Tony's face appeared over Clint's shoulder. "Banner said to tell you it wasn't your fault."

Steve clenched his hands and reached up to pull his pillow over his head, only to find they'd stripped it off his bed. He threw his arm over his eyes. "Please...please, go away."

There was a hushed argument at the foot of his bed that Steve ignored until all his teammates' heartbeats left except for Tony.

Tony knee-walked up the bed until he was even with Steve's hips. "The drug is gone, isn't it? We were right about that, right?"

Steve kept his face covered with his arm. It was easier to talk without eye contact. "Yes. It wore off while I was fighting the Hulk's hold on me."

Tony's fingers traced the same paths that Bruce's had when he'd been checking Steve for breaks while he was being odd in the field Hulk had taken them to. 

"Is Bruce...going to be okay?"

Tony humphed as he pulled on Steve's arm, but Steve refused to relent. "You ever read about multiple personalities in a single person?"

Steve lowered his arm. "What? Like that movie with the lady with three of her?"

Tony blinked. "Sort of? You know Hulk isn't exactly Bruce, right?"

"Yes." Steve pushed himself up. If they were going to talk about Bruce he shouldn't hide from what he'd done to the man.

"Okay, well, Bruce has more than just the Hulk in there with him. With this sort of thing there's sometimes an alter...another self, that knows the rest." Tony rubbed the back of his neck. "For Bruce, I think, that's Banner. There's at least two more besides that." He looked at Steve. "Do you remember Bruce taunting you?"

Steve blushed harshly. "I remember." He could remember it all in vivid detail. Each horrible thought he'd entertained, each blow he'd landed.

"That wasn't Bruce. It was one of the alters."

Steve stared at Tony. "He...I hurt more than just Bruce then. I mean...all in Bruce's body, but more than just _him_."

Tony sighed. "You were drugged."

"Still." Steve pulled his knees up to his chest. "Why didn't Hulk blame me?"

"Hulk isn't stupid. He doesn't have a lot of vocabulary, but he isn't stupid." Tony slid off the bed and pushed himself up onto Steve's nightstand to sit. "I'm pretty sure Hulk watches out of Bruce's eyes the closer he gets to being needed these days. I think he realized it was Stern's fault before Bruce lost out to Hulk's need to protect them. To protect you."

Steve's breathing hitched and he rubbed hard at the end of his nose. "When are the police coming? I should get cleaned up a bit for them."

Tony's eyebrows climbed. "What?"

Steve frowned at him. "To arrest me. I assaulted Bruce and his...alters. I broke bones, Tony."

"Well, duh." Tony rubbed at the corner of his eye. "If Bruce were drugged and Hulk smashed you would you have Bruce arrested for it?"

Steve jerked his head up. "What? No. No, of course not. That wouldn't be..." He glared at Tony. "That wasn't nice at all."

Tony smirked at him. "I didn't say I was nice, did I?" He patted Steve's knee. "Look, Cap. I get the guilty. Trust me, I'm feeling it for not being able to keep the tracking units up when the EM pulses hit and fired everything during the kidnappings."

Steve started to open his mouth to ask Tony what he was talking about when Tony held up his hand.

"Quiet. Just...listen, okay?" Tony waited for him to nod. "I get the guilt. I do. Thing is, right now we've got Banner out instead of Bruce, because Bruce broke himself trying to keep the Big Guy inside for fear of killing you."

"Broke?"

Tony sighed. "Alters. See, normally Bruce doesn't know about them, but from the footage I think Bruce was fighting at least two times for control with alters that weren't the Hulk."

"Footage?" Steve flushed with shame. "There's video?"

Tony grimaced. "Sterns was trying to broadcast it over the 'net, but JARVIS got it locked down."

Steve picked at the seam of his pants. "Bruce?"

"Right, yeah." Tony ran his fingers over his knees. "Bruce is sleeping and Banner is out. Glowing green eyes. You can't miss him." He pushed himself off Steve's nightstand. "Steve. It wasn't your fault."

"I have that inside me, Tony. It took a drug to find it, but it's there."

"Steve." Tony crouched down beside Steve's bed. "You aren't just your base desires, you know?"

Steve ran his thumb over his finger knuckles. "I wanted to _own_ him."

"Hmm." Tony put his fingertips against Steve's thumb. "Do you want to now?"

Steve shoved down the desperate feelings that bubbled in his chest. "Of course not."

"Hmm." Tony patted his hand. "Okay, Cap."

****


	7. Alters

****

Clint put out the pasta dish he'd helped JARVIS make as Tony either broke Steve worse or helped him heal up a little. "Natasha?"

She turned from where she was guarding the hallway down to the two rooms that held their teammates. "What?"

"Let them know there's food, please."

She nodded and disappeared down the hallway.

Thor held out utensils to him.

"Thanks, Thor." Clint glanced up at Thor as he put the settings in place. "You aren't going to wake Jane and Darcy?"

Thor shook his head as he handed more utensils. "Neither of them takes well to being woken in the middle of the night. Even if it is for a celebratory meal."

Clint nodded even though it wasn't all that celebratory, as it was more stuffing food down the two people beside Thor that needed it despite how they might personally feel. Clint asked Thor easy questions about Jane as Steve eased carefully around the corner to stand against the far wall. Clint waited for him to go still. "And if Steve goes crazy during dinner you can drop the hammer on him."

Steve started. "I...don't expect that to happen."

Clint grinned at him. "Good." He gestured to the table. "You might as well sit down."

"I'm not really hungry." Steve moved closer and glanced over his shoulder towards the hallway. "Agent Romanoff sort of threatened me."

Clint pushed gently on Steve's shoulder to get him to sit. "She doesn't 'sort of' threaten." 

Steve stilled under Clint's touch. "No. I suppose not."

Clint frowned at Thor's worried expression and pushed a little harder on Steve's shoulder. "Steve. You remember what you said to me after that first battle?"

Steve sat down and tucked his elbows in tight against his ribs. "Yes."

Clint nodded and watched Tony follow Banner into the room. "It applies to you too."

Steve turned his head slightly and peeked up at Clint from under his eyelashes. "I...thank you."

"Hope it helps." Clint settled at the end of the table between Steve and Thor. He watched Banner thinking about it before taking the seat at the other end, putting Natasha between him and Steve and Tony between him and Thor.

No one spoke as they dished out food and started to eat.

Banner stared at his fork full of pasta until Clint couldn't take it anymore.

"What's wrong with it?"

Banner turned his glowing green eyes on Clint. "Nothing." He put the fork down. "I'm...not normally the one to eat."

Tony's eyes swept around the table as Steve held himself tighter. He turned to Banner. "You don't have to eat."

Banner tapped the edge of his plate. "Maybe. Although we are hungry." He looked from Steve to Clint and held Clint's gaze. "Maybe...Allen could eat?"

Clint lifted his eyebrows. "Would Allen mind eating with a bunch of strangers?"

Banner smiled. "Oh, you aren't strangers to him."

Steve crushed a breadstick in his hand as he picked it up from the basket in front of him. "I'm sorry."

Banner blinked. "Why?"

Steve's head jerked around. "I hurt you. _Him._ All of..." He waved his hand at Banner. "...you."

Banner's eyebrows rose. "Oh. Well, yes and no." He cocked his head. "I do think you should meet Allen, Captain Steve."

Steve swallowed. "I-Okay?"

Natasha leaned forward to reach the salad. "Either eat or don't, Banner."

Banner looked at Natasha and then closed his eyes. When he opened them a moment later everything about Bruce's body had changed. The muscles were looser, his cheeks softer, and the happy little grin that spread across his face was something Clint had never seen on Bruce.

"Ooooh. Alfredo." He reached for his fork before freezing. "Uhm. Hello?"

Tony stuck out his hand. "Hi, I'm Tony."

Allen grinned wide and shook hands with Tony. "You're Iron Man!" He glanced down at Tony's hand in his and quickly dropped Tony's hand. "You don't like touching." He bit his lip. "Sorry."

Tony put a breadstick on the edge of Allen's plate. "I offered and yes, I'm Iron Man."

Allen bounced in his seat and shoveled food into his mouth. He smiled as he chewed.

Clint nudged Steve's leg to get the man moving again and watched as Natasha ignored Allen like he wasn't there as Thor regaled Allen with a story of hunting on Asgard.

Steve ate absently with stiff movements, keeping his elbows well in, one arm curled around his plate as he watched Allen.

As soon as the food on Allen's plate was gone he looked around at them all. "Thank you for letting me come out. Bruce doesn't need me much anymore."

Clint bit the inside of his cheek. "You still exist though." Tony scowled down the table at him and Natasha was going to kill him later, Clint could see the promise of it in her neutral expression.

Allen shrugged as he put his utensils on his plate in a certain order that looked like habit that Clint had never seen Bruce do. "We never disappear." He looked up from his plate. "Would...would Monster be safe here?"

Clint slipped around the table and knelt down to make himself level with the too old eyes of a too young boy in his friend's body. "Yes. I promise you that all of Bruce...every one of you in him are safe here." He ignored the harsh cutoff sob from Steve's direction and Natasha's cold fury at his back. "Any time, Allen. I'll make you more alfredo or anything else you'd like to eat."

Allen blinked and clasped his hands together. "I...don't need out."

Clint forced himself not to touch. "My offer isn't about needs, Allen."

"Okay." Allen turned his gaze from Clint to look over Clint's shoulder to Steve. "We don't blame you. You shouldn't blame yourself." His eyes rolled up in his head.

****

Tony watched the change flow over Bruce's body to tuck Allen away and replace him with...someone new. Smaller seeming and clearly scared. "Hi."

Wide eyes turned towards him and a quick hand darted out to grab up Bruce's fork from his plate. He held it close to his chest, the tines pointing at Tony. "Hi."

Clint eased his hand in and removed the plate with the knife and spoon still on it. "Hi there. May I know your name?"

The fork's tines shifted to point at Clint. "Monster."

Clint cocked his head. "Nah. I don't figure that's your name. I think that's what you think people call you."

Monster glared and held his fork out further, the tines wavering as he trembled. "Monster."

"Okay." Clint shrugged. "If you decide someday that we can be trusted with your name remember I'd still like to learn it."

Monster blinked and lowered the fork. "You aren't hitting me."

Tony leaned back in his chair. "No. We..." He made a gesture with his hand that caused Monster to freeze, which made Tony freeze in turn. "...won't hit you."

Natasha leaned on Clint's shoulder as Monster looked bewildered. "Allen thought you might like time awake when you aren't being hurt."

Monster frowned. "But that's my duty." He dropped the fork and looked around at them. "I..." He started to hyperventilate. "My...duty..." He closed his eyes.

****


	8. Brucey

****

Steve forced himself to hold still as Monster wailed about his duty before going silent and then there were hostile mostly green hazel eyes staring out at them from Bruce's face. Eyes that Steve remembered from when Bruce had taunted him. Steve sat frozen as this new person looked each person over carefully.

"Why am I awake?" His eyes darted from one to another of them.

Steve took a gulp of air and steeled himself. "We stressed Monster on accident."

Head cocked to one side, the hazel eyes narrowed. "I remember you."

"Yes." Steve pushed his half-full plate away, he could barely stomach it before, but now it was impossible. Even the ingrained urge to finish his food couldn't overcome his current distress. "I am sorry about that. I...was...drugged."

Changing his head to cock the other way, hands fidgeted with the fork Monster had dropped. "Bruce didn't think it was normal-you." His eyes softened and he blinked. "You're upset with yourself."

Steve swallowed. "Yes. I should have fought harder against the drug."

With a snort, he started to shake his head. "Nah. If there's one thing you can't fight it's having been drugged." He looked Clint up and down and then turned his eyes on Tony. He did the same to Thor before looking again at Steve and smiling. "I should know." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Don't mention me to Bruce, yeah?"

Steve frowned, but nodded. "If that's what you want."

"It is." He leaned back in his chair. "I'd...I'd like to talk again sometime. You'd have to ask Monster or Hulk for me. Maybe?"

"Of course." Steve pushed down his guilt so he could focusing on helping this part of Bruce. "Who do I ask for?"

"I'm Brucey." He handed the fork to Clint. "Banner is wanting out. Can't argue with him." He looked around at them all, even Natasha. "I might decide to like you people."

Steve watched Tony clench his hand in his napkin as Brucey gave way to Banner with his glowing eyes.

****

Tony tried not to give away too much in his body language as his suspicion was confirmed as Brucey gave his name to Steve. He swallowed the lump in his throat as Banner blinked at the empty plate Clint was clearing.

"I did not expect Allen to do that. I do apologize."

Steve shoved away from the table and fled the room.

Tony patted Banner's shoulder as Steve disappeared. "It's okay. Is Bruce still sleeping?"

Banner nodded slowly. "He is surfacing slowly. I think he'll be properly awake by afternoon."

"Okay. So." Tony pushed his plate towards Clint when he reached for it. "Will he remember any of this?"

Banner blinked. "Ah. Allen will embarrass him, but that will not hurt him. Both Monster and Brucey he will not remember." Banner looked at Tony. "He can only hold snatches of my memories."

Tony rubbed the edge of his arc reactor through his shirt. "Give him what you can. Please?"

Banner nodded. "I...Yes, alright." He yawned. "Perhaps we should lay down. It has been a most trying day."

****

Clint leaned against the roof's retaining wall and waited for Natasha to come along.

She appeared over the edge and flipped herself into a seat tight against him. "That I did not expect."

Clint hummed and leaned his head back against the wall they were sitting against. "Yeah. You think Monster has a different name?"

"Might not." She leaned against him. "Brucey came out while Rogers was simulating sex."

"I caught that. Stark doesn't want us to know, I think."

She nodded against his shoulder. "It isn't something we need to bring attention to. I just spent an hour explaining the alters to Thor."

"Thought he was too quiet during dinner."

"Hmm." She ran her fingertips down his forearm. "Is Bruce permanently broken?"

"No. Don't think so." Clint let her touch without comment. "Brucey didn't even pay you attention."

"Bruce would be upset if we tracked down the abusers that are still alive."

Clint caught her hand and squeezed gently. "What he doesn't know he can't get upset about."

"Very true."

****

Tony sat on the edge of their bed. "I can sleep somewhere else for the rest of tonight."

Banner looked up from folding the shirt he'd just taken off. "We bother you?"

Tony frowned. "No. I just..." He rubbed his hand over his chin. "You remember what happens with all of them?"

"I do." He pulled down the covers across from Tony. "If you are concerned about your sexual activities with Bruce, you need not be. I am pleased he finds you safe enough to engage in pleasurable acts with."

"We've done things..." He picked at the knee of his pajama pants. "There would have been a lot more negotiating before any power exchange if I'd known."

Banner narrowed his eyes at Tony. "He doesn't know."

Tony nodded. "Right. Yeah, I just...How much of what he finds arousing is from things that were done to Brucey?"

Banner sighed. "To retain his sanity, Brucey developed desires to match what was expected of him. Bruce is influenced by these even with Brucey in deep hiding." Banner looked at Tony. "You do not harm him with the power exchanges."

Tony climbed under the covers and snuggled up against Banner's side. "You're so sure."

"Yes. We know what we want when it comes to you, my love."

Tony tucked the cold tip of his nose against Banner's shoulder. "And...and how do I compare to what you want from Steve?"

Banner stilled next to him. "We...don't know." He curled in around Tony. "Steve is the pinnacle of what Ross tricked Bruce into attempting to reach for. What you are suggesting isn't something Bruce has allowed himself to think about."

"Does it shunt to the others when Bruce won't face it?"

Banner huffed. "Yes."

Tony nodded. "How old is Brucey now?"

Banner blinked. "What?"

"Am I molesting some child part of Bruce when we have sex is what I'm asking."

"No!" Banner scowled down at Tony. "He's college age now. He doesn't age when he sleeps." He patted Tony's chest near the arc reactor. "I said you don't hurt us. I wasn't lying."

Tony sighed. "Right. Just...checking." He pulled Banner in against him to mutter into his shoulder. "I don't know what I'm doing."

Banner held Tony as he slipped into sleep. "No one knows. Us least of all."

****


	9. Bruce

****

Bruce woke up and stared at the ceiling for a while, thinking over what he could remember of the kidnapping and aftermath. He rolled on his side and stroked a hand down the side of Tony's chest as he slept.

Sitting up, Bruce rearranged the blankets to cover Tony as he slipped from the bed. He showered, scrubbing at the faint feeling of soreness in his feet, ribs, and across his cheekbones. 

He could remember now that he'd not hurt Steve. The other guy had shaken Steve, but hadn't beat him on anything and from what Bruce could remember of the meal in the middle of the night, Steve had been moving well enough afterwards. 

Bruce stared at the tiles lining the wall as he thought about the boy eating in his place. The memory of that boy felt different than the person that had pushed forward during the fight with Steve. Different from the one that had tried to overtake Bruce when drugged-Steve was beating on them.

Rinsing off, Bruce stepped out of the shower and dried himself off. Checking that he didn't have any visible marks from the day before on him, Bruce dressed and went looking for Steve. He needed to show Steve that he was alright and see that Steve was okay in turn.

****

Steve beat on the heavy bag in the gym JARVIS had pointed him to when he'd woken a few hours before anyone else would be up given the shifts in sleeping hours from the events of the day before. 

He was breathing hard from trying to out pace his memories when he heard someone coming towards the door.

Steve moved around the bag to put it between him and the door and blinked when the door opened to let Bruce in. It looked like Bruce at least. He wasn't yet certain how to tell the alters apart. Steve backed away until his back hit the far wall and he dropped down it on wobbly legs to sit on the floor.

Bruce eased closer and crouched near Steve. "Morning, Steve."

Steve blinked and put his hands between his knees. "Morning."

Bruce cocked his head. "I-ah, remember most of yesterday."

"Okay."

With a frown, Bruce adjusted his arms along his knees. "Steve, I'm sorry Sterns involved you in something aimed at me."

Steve shook his head. "It wasn't your fault." He bit his lip. "I, uhm, know it wasn't _me_ exactly, but...I'm still sorry, Doctor."

Bruce nodded. "You should call me Bruce." He and eased himself backwards to sit on his butt on the floor. "Initial screens show the agent as inducing in you heightened aggression and blocking higher order thinking."

"It felt like I was burning."

Bruce blinked. "You remember it?"

Steve pulled at the wrappings on his hands. "Sure. I always remember everything from being awake."

"Every moment of waking time?"

"Yes." Steve looked at Bruce and blushed. "I'm sorry."

Bruce leaned forward and pulled Steve's hand out to work on unwrapping it. "I didn't know that. Hulk didn't hurt you?"

"No." Steve watched him with wide eyes. "He shook me some when I kicked him, but nothing I didn't deserve."

"You didn't deserve any of that, Steve."

Steve yanked his hand back. "Neither did you, Bruce."

Bruce rubbed his hand through his hair. "I didn't say I did." He swallowed. "Steve, are you alright?"

Steve pushed up to his feet. "Nothing's wrong with me." He hurried out of the gym.

Bruce pushed himself to his feet and leaned against the wall as his feet flared pain for a few moments. Ghost pains. He sighed and headed for his labs.

****

Steve huddled in the corner of the shower in the rooms Tony had given him for when he wanted to stay in the Tower. He banged his head lightly against the tile as he tried to push his feelings down, away. If he could just get control of himself it'd be okay.

After a while, Steve hauled himself out of his shower to the little desk in his bedroom. He powered up the computer and stared at the search box. He laid his hands on the input keys and stared some more.

"Captain?"

Steve startled and glanced up at the speaker JARVIS' voice had come from. "Yes?"

"Would you like assistance?"

"I..." Steve blinked at the flashing cursor. "Yes, please. I don't want Tony knowing though, is that possible for you?"

"It is. What is your query?"

He thumbed his eyebrow. "I don't know how to explain without sounding like...like a twit." Steve steeled himself. "I know about Tony and Bruce being a couple, so I've been sitting on any stray feelings I might have."

Steve thumbed the edge of the desk. "Yesterday, under that drug I wanted to _own_ Bruce. I can't shake the idea. Only...I..." Steve frowned down at his hand. "...want to be the one owned. Maybe. I'm not even sure..."

He bent his head as JARVIS remained quiet. "There's something wrong with me, isn't there?"

"Not at all, Captain." JARVIS flicked the search box away and put up a website. "I apologize for the delay. I was filtering the search results."

Steve frowned at the screen. "Results?"

"Yes, Captain." JARVIS scrolled the page to a picture of a person kneeling for another. "I believe you are referring to a certain subset of sexual desires."

Steve touched the picture and shuddered. "I wouldn't put myself between them, just so you know, JARVIS. I'm not so selfish that'd I'd hurt either of them."

"I have never categorized you as selfish, Captain."

****

Bruce slipped in and settled beside Tony and watched him working on the Iron Man armor. "When did you start working on the mental connection?"

"A while back." Tony flicked everything away and turned towards Bruce. "Cap beating himself up?"

"I think it might be more than that." Bruce rubbed his head. "You know how he feels about you, right?"

"About me?" Tony scowled at him. "You think he's...Wait, wait. Why do you think he's got feelings for me?"

Bruce shrugged as he took the rag Dum-E was holding out towards him. "He smells aroused around you sometimes."

"Smells?" Tony propped his chin in his hand. "So, what does he smell like around you?"

"Shame." Bruce adjusted his glasses.

"Hmm." Tony poked the back of Bruce's forearm with his fingertip. "You and I have talked about him. About how we feel about him."

"We did."

Tony pursed his lips. "Does yesterday change it for you?"

"What? No." Bruce frowned down at his hands. "I feel a little weird knowing there's more than the other guy inside me, but about him...no."

Tony leaned back in his chair. "What if he wanted you? Would that change things?"

Bruce snorted. "He doesn't want me, Tony."

"Let's say he did."

Frowning, Bruce rubbed the bridge of his nose. "He's all shame around me, Tony."

"Maybe that isn't about _you_ , Bruce." Tony nudged Bruce's foot with his own.

"Maybe." Bruce sighed. "Did Sterns survive?"

"Barely." Tony flicked up the feed from SHEILD's medical holding wing. "You have any idea why Hulk didn't smash him flat?"

Bruce frowned. "He had some twisted up idea that I might need him to fix Steve."

"Huh. Not stupid, is he?"

"Tony."

"Just saying." Tony rolled his chair closer to Bruce. "You okay?"

"No." Bruce made a face and twisted his hands around themselves. "I feel out of control."

"Too close to Steve?"

"What?" Bruce stared at him. "No. He...I know it wasn't _him_ , Tony."

"Uh huh." Tony gestured the direction of the Tower's gym. "It was his body. His face, Bruce."

Bruce pressed his lips together for a moment. "Tony. I know what a monster in human skin looks like and Steve very much isn't that. By any measure."

Tony nodded. "Okay. Just so you're sure. Because, right now, Bruce...right now he's convinced himself that he's a terrible monster under all that spangly blue. He's certain he's _wrong_ somehow." Tony touched Bruce's elbow. "If you're thinking something similar..."

"No." Bruce took a deep breath. "I've felt like that in the past about myself, true. I've gotten low, like I told you." He took his glasses off. "Even the other guy isn't a monster like...Steve is thinking about himself."

Tony fidgeted with a stray scrap of metal. "What changed it for you? Feeling...low?"

Slipping his glasses back into place, Bruce used the rag Dum-E had given him to wipe at a grease streak on Tony's desk. "Couple of things. I resigned myself after...after I didn't die. I was just existing, you know?" He glanced at Tony before concentrating on cleaning the desk. "Then I met this guy. Genius, little crazy, brilliant guy that...cared. About me. I mean, you didn't ignore him, but you saw _me_ too."

Frowning, Tony used the end of the metal he held to pin down the rag Bruce was cleaning with. "I...help?"

Confusion written across his face, Bruce turned towards Tony. "Yes, Tony." He tugged the rag out from under Tony's metal. "Steve will recover in a few days."

"I don't think so." Tony sighed. "We've got a blind spot when it comes to him. Natasha pointed it out to me."

Bruce tensed. "What blind spot?"

Tony rolled his chair closer and leaned his shoulder against Bruce. "She seems to think we both see him as more prefect than he is."

"Uh." Bruce blinked and his brow furrowed as he thought. "She's probably right."

"She gets most people right. Don't tell her I think that though."

Bruce smiled. "Of course not. I'd never endanger your reputation."

"Oh, ha, ha." Tony pushed off Bruce and rolled back across to his desk. "I think we're going to have to pull Steve up from the depths."

"It was only a few hours." Bruce pulled himself closer as Tony pulled up the video of the fight. "Oh. He looks even worse than he did up close."

"You were busy."

"True." Bruce watched the video until it reached the point where that other presence had taunted Steve. "Pause it." He looked over his body's posture and the different color of his eyes. "That's an alter. I remember fighting with someone for control there."

"I wondered." Tony poked Bruce in the back of the forearm with a pen. "You know which one?"

Bruce shook his head. "No. Banner has the glowing eyes, right?"

"Yeah. Allen's are more brown."

"Allen?"

Tony pulled up the video from their meal in the middle of the night. "I asked JARVIS to tell Clint we should all eat once we got back since both you and Steve have whacked out metabolisms." Tony fast-forwarded to a point with Allen and held the video on pause. "See? Browner."

"Uh." Bruce cocked his head. "Why didn't we end up in medical with Sterns?"

"Hulk cleared you and Steve had shrugged off the drugs by the time we got you both into the quintjet. We might have taken a vote on it." Tony flicked the videos away. "The doctors get all grabby hands over him and you."

Bruce nodded. "Both of us hate it. I really prefer Thor patch me up."

"And not just because he'd probably stand your blood better than a regular human, huh?"

Rolling his eyes, Bruce twirled the rag in his hands. "He's been in combat for centuries before ever meeting us. I'm pretty sure he knows how to wrap a bandage, Tony."

****

Clint watched Natasha flow through her agility routine. "You know he's going to beat himself up about it."

She landed and turned her head to glare at him. "Are you talking about Bruce or Steve?"

"Uh, more both." Clint ran his fingers over his secondary bow. "You think this is what will break Cap?"

Natasha knelt down in front of him and ran her fingers through her hair. "No. I think short of a war between him and Stark nothing would break Rogers. I'm not even that worried about Bruce. Other than his alters wanting us to keep information from Bruce..."

"Yeah, how do we handle that? I mean, do you treat the alter like a separate person and all or are they just parts of one whole?"

Natasha sighed. "I think...We're going to have to treat them as separate people sharing one body. Like the Hulk."

Clint touched the toe of his boot to her knee. "You okay?"

She shrugged. "They were taken so easily."

Clint put aside his bow. "It didn't look easy. It looked like Steve was figuring it out and Bruce was distracted."

"Steve turns his awareness down too far in crowds."

"Maybe." Clint pushed himself to his feet and started picking up the equipment he'd brought into her studio. "To him, he's straight out of a war, right? We treat him like he grew up in this time, but he didn't." Clint huffed. "You know there were a lot of soldiers that came back that didn't adjust."

Natasha followed him out into her living room. "He adjusted."

"Hmm." Clint turned towards her as he waited for the elevator to arrive. "Nat, I don't know...I think he's a better actor than we give him credit for."

She lifted her chin. "You want help figuring it out?"

He grinned and squeezed her bicep. "I'll let you know." He stepped into the elevator. "You could check on Bruce for me, though."

She stuck her tongue out at him as the doors slid closed.

****


	10. Clint

****

Jane leaned against the railing next to Thor as he gazed out across the city. "Stark's computer said we got both of them back."

"Indeed." Thor smiled at her. "Thank you for your help, Jane."

She nodded. "Sure. No problem." She leaned into him. "You okay?"

"I...do not understand the customs of this realm."

"Oh?"

"In Asgard, should someone dare to take a person from their House and hold them they would give notice so the offended House could bargain or battle to recover the stolen person."

"Ah." Jane gestured to the city at large. "Notice isn't a requirement here. We don't have Houses, per say." She looked up at him. "But, you don't expect us to be like Asgard. You worked that out already, so what is really wrong?"

"Mjolnir can speak in a way. She knows her mind on those we converse with."

"Uhm. Okay?"

Thor lifted Mjolnir from between his feet and twirled her. "She normally favors the Good Captain."

Jane frowned. "She doesn't now?"

Thor shook his head. "She only protested his presence when we first retrieved him in the night."

"So...she could tell he was drugged?"

"Drugged. You all have used this word, but it is not translating through the All-Speak."

"Seriously? You don't have a word for...Uh." Jane cocked her head. "Can you be knocked out by an...agent that someone slips into your drink or food?"

"Nay."

"Or maybe injects into your blood?"

"None I have encountered. There are magics that work thusly."

"Uh." Jane wrapped her arm in his. "Thor, we can have that happen to us without magic. That's drugged. Steve was injected with an agent, a drug, and it knocked him out. A different drug made him...not him."

"Oh." Thor put Mjolnir back on the floor of the balcony between his feet. "It had worried me what magic the madman Sterns had learned and where he'd gained it from."

Jane went up on tiptoe and kissed his shoulder. "Different sort of magic, love."

****

Clint retrieved his primary bow and headed down to Steve's rooms. JARVIS had said he was looking at the internet, which normally wouldn't worry Clint, but right now he didn't really trust Steve's state of mind.

He knocked and slipped in before Steve had a chance to tell him to go away. He dropped to sit on the side of Steve's bed and watched as Steve tried to shut down his computer screen. Clint looked over the blush and the text filling the screen and flopped back on Steve's bed.

"You don't have to freak out, Steve."

There was a cutoff noise of frustration and then a thunk as Steve pulled the power plug on the computer. "You don't have manners."

Clint grinned at the ceiling. "Not always, nope." He ran his fingers over his bow. "What were you reading?"

"You didn't look at it?"

Clint waved his foot back and forth. "You were blushing. I was busy admiring."

"I blush a lot."

"You do." Clint lifted his head and narrowed his eyes at Steve. "You got questions a computer can't answer?"

He frowned and ran his fingertips down the back of the fingers of his other hand. "I..."

Clint laid back. "If you do you can ask me. If I can't answer straight off I know where to go for answers." He held his bow up a few inches. "Promise on my bow I won't spread around details of what we discuss."

Steve huffed. "Why do you care?"

Clint put his bow aside. "Fair enough." He sat up and pulled his feet under himself to sit cross-legged. "Why do you think I wouldn't care?"

Frowning, Steve blinked. "What?"

"You're assuming I wouldn't, or maybe shouldn't, care. So, why?"

"I..." Steve rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know."

"Okay, that's fair." Clint tapped the bedspread in front of him. "What were you reading?"

Steve hunched tighter in on himself. "I'm...I found a...kink, I think it would be called...and I'm trying to figured out if that's what I've...got or if...I'm just a... whack."

Clint pursed his lips. "Sure. Okay, so what's the kink?"

Steve stared at him. "Just like that?"

"Yeah. Why not?" Clint waved his hand at Steve. "You don't have a lot of people to ask that aren't interested in you sexually, which would color their answers, and I don't see you asking a woman, which let's Nat right out..." He smiled at Steve's look of horror. "See? So, since asking our resident God of Thunder would just get you involved in a discussion of customs between worlds, I'm your next best bet."

Steve thumbed his eyebrow. "I...Uhm. I don't think I can talk about it."

Clint sighed. "Figures. Alright, so let's go about this a different way. You weren't having this sort of crisis before being kidnapped." He nodded when Steve glanced up. "Yeah. So your kink is about control. Domination maybe..." He cocked his head. "You want to dominate your sub?"

Steve frowned as he looked down at his hands.

"No...So, other way around. You want to be dominated, maybe?"

Steve jerkily nodded. "I just...maybe?"

Clint nodded. "You don't have to be sure, you know." 

With a sigh, Steve moved to the bed and sat on the edge so his was mostly turned away from Clint. "I'm a horrible person."

Clint shook his head. "Nope, don't think that...so why do you think it?"

Steve gripped his thighs tight. "I _like_ people I shouldn't and it..."

"Ooooh. That."

Steve turned his head to stare. "That?"

Clint nodded. "You've been falling for Tony and Bruce for a while. Nat and I have bets on it."

"I..."

"Stop for a second." Clint scooted closer. "Steve, have you read about plural relationships at all?"

"About what?"

"Yeah, didn't think it'd have occurred to you." Clint crawled under Steve's desk and plugged the computer back in. "I'll help you look up some stuff to read. You didn't end up on a porn site, did you? I told Tony to have JARVIS scrub your searches unless you were purposefully looking for porn."

"I...what? Really?"

Clint pulled back out from under the desk. "Well, yeah. Some stuff out there would make you die from blushing. Some of it makes _me_ blush."

Steve's eyebrows climbed. "You blush?"

"Oh, yes. People can be weird." Clint opened a new tab on the browser. "Okay, so what do you want to know first?"

Steve rubbed his hands together. "I...don't rightly know."

"Sure." Clint opened several sites and then glanced at Steve. "You do want both of them, don't you?"

"Uhm." Steve bit his lip. "Yes?"

Clint sighed. "You asking me or are you worried about what I'll think of you if you said yes?"

Steve ducked his head. "More worried."

Clint touched Steve's knee. "Hey. I'm not going to judge you, Steve. Okay? You want them both?"

"Okay." Steve nodded. "Yes. Both of them."

"See? That wasn't too hard." Clint squinted at Steve. "You wanted them both before getting kidnapped, right?"

Steve's head jerked up. "Wha...Yes." Steve rubbed at his neck as he blushed. "Yes, before that."

"Good." Clint pulled on Steve's sleeve. "Here, read this one first."

****


	11. Natasha

****

Natasha knocked at the door of Bruce's lab.

"Come in."

She made certain to stop in his line of sight. "Doc."

He glanced up at her and then took his glasses off. "What can I do for you?"

Natasha slipped into a seat near Bruce. "Clint worries."

He smiled. "Got the short straw, did you?"

"No straws." Natasha folded her arms in front of her and leaned on them. "How many alters do you think you have?"

He looked up from his screens. "I...haven't counted." He frowned and then looked back at his data. "You've read about dissociative disorders?"

"I have."

Bruce nodded. "I never gave the missing patches of time much thought even after the other guy."

"And now?"

Bruce sighed as he fiddled with his glasses. "I...I don't really want to know much about them. My mind had reasons to make them that I couldn't handle then, let alone now."

Natasha cocked her head. "You think it makes you weak because you had to split yourself in parts to survive?"

Bruce scowled at her. "Doesn't it?"

"No." Natasha propped her chin in her hand. "Doc, when did you decide you were interested in your field of study?"

Bruce looked at her in confusion. "Maybe three and half...four years old. What does that have to do with anything?"

Natasha tapped her fingers against her cheek. "Same field of study now. Even split up, right? You picked it and you stuck with it."

"Yes?"

"Does it make you weaker that you didn't shift to something else to keep your father from noticing your first tries at experiments?"

Bruce drew a sharp breath. "It makes me stupid."

"No." Natasha dropped her hand from her chin. "Bruce, as a child you can't hope to fully control the adults around you. You can only control yourself. Which is exactly what you did."

Frowning, Bruce rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "By fracturing my psyche?"

"By giving part of yourself a much better chance at a life than you would have had otherwise." Natasha gestured at him. "You never seem to notice the aches you carry after a transformation. Is that something you've developed since him or something you always could do?"

Bruce blinked. "I've always been able to...Oh." He blinked again. "I..." He looked at her and then down at his hands. "Thank you."

"Hmm." Natasha slipped from her stool and kissed Bruce on the temple. "You are a very strong person, Bruce. Trust me on that."

Bruce snorted as she pulled away. "You are such a liar."

"Is Hulk still calling me Red Liar?"

"I...think so." Bruce bit his lip as he turned to watch her leave. "Natasha."

She looked over her shoulder at him. "Yes, Doc?"

"My...not wanting to know how many there are...I'm not going to change my mind on it." He lifted his head a bit. "Count for me? Please?"

Natasha looked him over and then nodded. "I'll only tell you if you actually want to know."

"Thanks."

She waved over her shoulder as she left.

****

Tony stared at the purple thing in the workshop refrigerator. "It's a what?"

"A carrot, sir."

"Uh huh. J, it's purple."

"Doctor Banner had chosen it along with the other groceries on that shelf before he was abducted."

Tony huffed. "Purple carrots. Right, okay." He poked at the small fruit thing near the not-carrots. "This thing?"

"A plout, which is a cross between a plum and an apricot."

"Sounds science-y." Tony closed the door. "Does Bruce know you went ahead and bought this stuff?"

"It didn't seem important, sir."

Tony nodded as he headed across the workshop to grab up the new prototype tracking unit. "Let him know. Email or voice, whichever, J. He'll think it's important."

****

Steve was glad when Clint relented only because it gave him time alone to try to get himself under control. Hopefully, he had at least a few hours until someone insisted he come out of hiding to eat dinner. Steve paged through another website that Clint had queued up. "JARVIS?"

"Yes, Captain?"

"Do you filter my search results?"

"Only when required." There was a momentary pause. "You rarely search for items that would return results in need of filtering."

"I'm boring."

"No, Captain. I believe you simply have a vivid imagination."

Steve blushed as he thought about everything he'd ever imagined. "Might have." He blew out a long sigh. "How long until someone comes to fuss over me?"

"I estimate 2.38 hours, Captain."

Steve nodded. "Tony meant it when he said you don't extend to the bathrooms?"

"That is correct. I do not focus on any bedroom in which there are certain activities ensuing, as well."

Steve glanced at the open webpage. "Uhm. Thanks for that." He licked his lips. "Growing up, I was taught those certain activities were wrong. Sinful."

"Captain, I have read every page of literature in human possession from every era that can be translated and I have found one thing to be a constant."

Steve blinked. "What's that?"

"Sex."

Steve ducked his head and rubbed at the tip of his ear were they were starting to redden. "Seriously?"

"Yes. What the various eras of societies record about the subject changes, but the acts themselves, the desires of people, appear to vary only with the imagination of the individuals involved."

Steve scrolled the website page he had been reading. "Even...even when it is only one individual?"

"Even so."

"Uh." Steve pushed away from his desk. "I'm going to...take a shower. Thank you, JARVIS."

"Of course, Captain. I will cut power to the bathroom lights should anyone come to fuss over you earlier than anticipated."

Steve rubbed the back of his neck. "Uhm. Good. Thanks."

****

Clint flopped down near Natasha, but not on her. "You didn't kill Bruce."

"You know he's harder to kill than that."

"You'd find a way." Clint rolled and put the tip of his nose against her bicep. "Bad?"

"No worse than I thought." She caught his hand and tangled their fingers over her stomach. "Steve?"

"I had to give a sex talk, Nat. Seriously, have you seen the pamphlets they gave soldiers in WWII? They were awful. Add in his religious upbringing and he can barely say penis. Actually, I don't think he _can_ say penis."

She snorted. "You didn't try to make him, did you?"

"Gah. No, I'm not that mean." Clint pushed his nose a little tighter against her skin. "I might have got him to admit to a kink. It was eating at him. I looked up some history and explanations for him. I thought retreat was the better part of valor when he started to get hard."

She patted his hip with her free hand. "He's young."

"Yeah." Clint sighed. "We were right. He's got it bad for both of them."

"Figures." Natasha leaned her head over to touch the top of his head. "Bruce doesn't want to know more about the alters."

"That figures too." Clint squeezed her hand. "How is this our lives? Have you ever heard of something so messed up?"

Natasha squeezed back. "We'll help them untangle it. I know for sure Stark would fuck Rogers. What do you think on Bruce's feelings?"

Clint sighed. "He's harder for me to read."

"I think he might find Rogers sexual attractive."

"You could ask him."

Natasha smacked his hip. "You ask."

Clint grinned. "Okay, sure. What's one more sex talk between friends?"

 

****

Steve bit his lip as he scrubbed at his skin. He was so confused by it all. The desires chasing themselves around inside him. The shame of wanting tangled with his overlying shame of every time he'd taken himself in hand.

Leaning his shoulder against the shower wall, Steve held his breath as he gave his penis a firm stroke. It stiffened right up like always since the serum and Steve heaved several lungfuls of air before giving in and closing his eyes to imagine.

He wrapped his hand a little too tight, liking the slight pain at the edge of his defused pleasure. Steve ran the thumb of his other hand around the tip of his shaft, teasing the skin of his glans. 

Panting, Steve lowered himself to his knees and sped up his strokes, pulling too fast and hard to _feel_ it. He snaked his other hand up his body to rest in a light grip around his throat.

Steve built the fantasy in blocky images. Being choked for pleasuring himself as a reward and punishment all in one. His hips jerked and Steve listened to the harsh rasp of his breathing as he forced himself to slow down.

He'd be told to slow down. To savor the feelings, the sin of it. Steve leaned harder into the shower wall as he rolled his hips to make his strokes deeper, tighter. He squeezed his own throat in an easy slow rhythm. 

He forced his hips to still. They'd tell him to hold still for them. To take only what they were willing to give him. Steve's strokes sped up. He dropped his hand from his neck to pull at his sac. He whimpered as he arched his back into the sharp pains of his tugging.

Steve stroked and pulled, letting out little hurt noises as he made every feeling swell up inside. He wrapped his hand tighter making it hurt that little bit more as he kept himself on edge. He wallowed in the sensations, the thin pain, and encompassing pleasure. 

Curling, Steve let his forehead touch the wall, the coolness against his skin contrasting sharply against the creeping warmth of his pleasure and pain. He moaned as he finally let go. He froze as his shaft jerked with each pulsing splash of his release. 

When his shudders started to fade, Steve started stroking again with a shaky hand. Panting as he pulled softly on himself, Steve blinked away the water and tears from his eyes. He leaned against the wall and wrapped his free hand back around his throat.

He squeezed and stroked through the increasing shivers. Everything felt even bigger as he kept chasing the sensations around his body. Needing to feel it all, to feel _more_. Steve shuddered hard as he crested again, his skin throbbing with it.

He slid down the wall of the shower to rest in a heap, panting. The soft spray of water from the shower rained down on his heated skin, each drop splashing in his pleasure and making him quiver.

****

When JARVIS announced dinner was ready, Bruce felt a slight push at the back of his mind. He frowned, blinking. He closed his eyes and felt around. It hadn't felt like the Hulk. He felt it again as he focused his thoughts on dinner. It felt pleading.

Bruce opened his eyes. "Huh." He took the elevator to Tony's workshop. "Tony?"

Tony looked up from a small flying unit under his hand. "Yeah?"

"I...uh, I think I've got an alter wanting to come out for dinner."

"Okay." Tony powered down the flying unit. "So?"

Bruce sighed. "Tony, I don't know what to do about it."

"Let him out." Tony glanced up. "Okay, that probably didn't sound good." He frowned. "Bruce, you don't want just be run over by them, right?"

"Right."

"You said wanting to come out, so he, what, asked?"

"Sort of, I suppose."

"There you go."

Bruce frowned. "What?"

"Asking is better than just brushing you aside. Right?"

"I guess." He rubbed the side of his head. "I...don't know, Tony."

"It'll be fine. Banner made it sound like Allen did most of the eating."

Bruce scowled. "I...don't want to surprise everyone else."

"JARVIS can warn them. Yes, or no?"

Bruce blew out a long sigh. "Fine." He poked around in his head. "I don't know how to trigger this."

"Bruce."

Bruce looked at Tony. "What?"

"Calm down or you'll get Hulk."

"I am calm." He rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Sorry, sorry." He sat down on his chair at Tony's desk. "The one that eats." He could feel a tentative push at him. He grasped it and gave a little tug. "I'm not mad at you."

****

Tony watched fascinated as Bruce coaxed Allen out. "Hi, there."

Allen took off Bruce's glasses and beamed at him. "Hi. Here, he'll want them later."

Tony nodded and pocketed the glasses. "You want to eat?"

"Oh, could we? I love food." Allen turned a circle with the chair. "Oooh. Neat. Is this all Iron Man stuff?"

"Mostly." Tony pointed at the door. "If you head that way we'll get to see the rest of the Avengers."

"Really? They were so nice to me last time." Allen hopped up and headed for the door. "I think I made Captain Steve sad though."

"That wasn't your fault. He's feeling guilty because of something a bad man made him do against his will."

Allen frowned as they got into the elevator. "Why should he feel guilty? If he didn't want to do it...Is this about him hitting Bruce?"

"Some."

"Oh." Allen swayed as the elevator rose. "Why? He didn't want to hit Bruce. He smelled all wrong for him."

Tony lead the way into the kitchen where they were going to eat. "You can smell that?"

Allen shrugged. "Smells are easy now. Hulk made them easy." He waved at everyone already at the table. "Hi!" He took the chair next to Steve. "Tony thinks you're still feeling bad about hitting Bruce."

Steve swallowed. "Somewhat."

Allen pulled the basket of rolls closer and plopped four rolls down on Steve's empty plate. "Well, quit it. Bruce doesn't get Hulk's smarts and Bruce broke us to save you when we all knew it wasn't proper you. You didn't smell right."

****

Steve looked at Tony over Allen's shoulder. "Bruce can smell that well?"

Allen looked Steve up and down. "Well, duh. You can too. Right?"

Steve shifted in his seat. "I...yeah, I can."

"So, have you smelled the clothes you were in? Smell bad, don't they? Wrong for your normal smell, right?"

Frowning, Steve picked at the roll on his plate as Allen spooned vegetables on the plate beside the rolls. "I...guess. Yes."

"See?" Allen smiled at him. "That's okay. You don't have to go smelling yourself often so I wouldn't think you'd have thought of it." He looked at the platter of meat in front of Natasha. "May we have the meat, please?"

She exchanged the vegetables with the meat and watched amused as Allen put meat on Steve's plate and then his. "Do you always serve yourself?"

Allen looked up from buttering his roll. "One of my first duties was to find us food when Mommy was ill and Daddy was in his lab." He stuck his tongue out as he got another pat of butter.

"What all duties do you have?" Clint put pudding down next to Allen's elbow.

Allen smiled up at him as he pushed the pudding further onto the table. "Mine are food, dishes, the boring homework cause I don't mind it. And, fixing Mommy's illnesses when they weren't too deep. Now, I do the boring test tubes sometimes when Bruce is tired of them."

Allen patted Steve's hand where it had fisted up on the tablecloth. "Don't be upset. I like my duties. I don't need more or different ones."

Steve nodded.

Tony poked Allen in the shoulder. "He's not upset with you or Bruce, Allen."

"Okay. That's good. We like Captain Steve." Allen smiled wide and started to shovel food in his mouth. 

****


	12. Control

****

Natasha poked Tony in the ribs as she cornered him in the elevator. "Why?"

Tony frowned at her and leaned into the corner he'd retreated to. "Why, what?"

"Why are we forcing them to interact at meals?"

Tony sighed. "What did we do twice a week no matter what before they got taken?"

Natasha narrowed her eyes at him. "Team dinners."

"Right. And what am I forcing us to do now?"

"Everyday is not twice a week."

"No. I know that." Tony rubbed his hand over his face. "What do you think Steve would do if we left him alone for a couple of days?"

"Most likely he'd end up in a deeper depressive episode than he'd been in before."

"Okay. And Bruce?"

She frowned. "What are you getting at?"

"It doesn't do either of them any good to hide. Bruce would force down the alters until we were having explosions of Brucey triggered by some slight touch by a man or Monster out in tears in the middle of trying to teach Bruce more offensive hand-to-hand moves." Tony put his head against the wall. "And don't even start me on Steve."

Natasha leaned against the wall opposite Tony. "And you think getting them to interact is going to fix it?"

He made a face at her. "I'm not stupid." He shrugged. "I can't just fix them. I can make sure Bruce has an excuse to let out Allen, which gives us Monster and Brucey in controlled timeframes if they want out or Steve gets up the nerve to ask to talk to Brucey." He cocked his head. "And what does that give us?"

She lifted her chin. "You think Steve seeing the alters trusting him will help."

"I'm hoping." He tapped his arc reactor. "I think it helps them both."

Natasha nodded. "Good."

Tony cocked an eyebrow. "Good? Seriously? Are you okay? You didn't break somewhere and we not notice did you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up. I wanted to make sure you actually had a plan and weren't just throwing them together to see what would blow up."

"Oh, thanks."

Natasha pinned him to the wall with one hand. "Hey. I'm not disparaging you." She leaned in so he was forced to look her in the eye. "One of them is your friend turned lover and the other one is someone I've watched you lust after for several months so forgive me for worrying that you might not being seeing the situation clearly."

Tony swallowed. "Okay. I can see that." He touched her elbow. "You think I'm wrong?"

Natasha pulled back. "I didn't say that." She frowned. "What do you know about how that drug affected Steve?"

Tony blinked. "Why do you want to know?"

"Clint thinks Steve hit a kink in himself under the influence of that drug and I want to know if it could be an aftereffect that's going to fade or something Steve just uncovered."

"Oh." Tony shook his head. "It's out of his system and everything JARVIS can measure without being intrusive shows baseline."

"Except for Doctor Banner's and Captain Rogers' stress levels, sir."

Tony made a so-so gesture. "Except for that."

Natasha huffed. "Great."

"Doesn't sound great."

She tucked her hair behind her ear. "That's because it isn't. Do you think Steve is going to act on desires he thinks he 'got' from a drug that made him try to rape Bruce?"

"Ah." Tony looked at his feet for a few moments. "Do you think he needs to act on them?"

"Do you want him to blow up? No? Then he's going to have to find an outlet that doesn't involve a punching bag."

Tony pursed his lips. "I could pick a fight with him."

"That is not as helpful as you think it is."

"Hmm." Tony snapped his fingers. "I've got just the thing." He hurried out of the elevator and then came back. "Out. I didn't even get to push the button for the floor I wanted."

She grinned at him as she passed by him to get out of the elevator.

****

Bruce pulled the bedcovers over his lap and sat still, just breathing. Mediatation hadn't even begun to touch his out-of-control feeling. The feel of others in the back of his head was becoming more pronounced and he didn't know what to make of them.

Hulk, at least, was easy to distinguish. The rage was forefront for him. The one that ate was all bubbly happy, Bruce had figured that out during dinner, watching from behind the child. There was another child that clung near the eating one that was fear, just plain fear. The rest Bruce couldn't get any sort of handle on.

He tried purposefully relaxing his muscles one group at a time. If he could only work it through and figure out how to control himself it'd be fine. He'd be okay.

He gently pushed at the feel of Hulk. The other guy pushed back in the way he'd come to learn was to show Bruce he was ready to go if Bruce wanted, but that he didn't need to force Bruce to let him out.

Turning his awareness, Bruce nudged the bubbly happy eating child and got a happy burble feeling in return.

Pulling out of himself, Bruce held his knees in his hands and breathed through his mouth. He couldn't do this. He couldn't just shove them around. He...needed control, but he didn't want to be...he couldn't be their father to them. Bruce tried to force his breathing to slow. He didn't want the Hulk out. He didn't...

****

Banner pushed the bedcovers off of himself and sighed. He got out of the bed and tucked the covers up properly. "Mr. JARVIS, would you be so kind as to inform Tony I am currently in control of our body?"

"Very well, Doctor Banner."

"Thank you." Banner looked around. He normally didn't interact with the external world. He ran their fingertips across every surface he could reach. He wiggled their toes in the deep pile of the rug. He looked up as Tony entered their room. "Hello."

"Uh, hi." Tony sat on the end of the bed. "What happened?"

Banner sighed. "He was trying to work on control. It upset him." Banner knelt on the carpet and felt at the pile. "I like physical sensation."

Tony put his hand on Banner's shoulder. "Is he okay?"

Banner blinked up at him. "If he were I'd not be out, would I?" He sighed. "Bruce had a stray thought about possibly being our Father to his alters and he suffered a panic attack. I put him to sleep."

"Ah." Tony rubbed Banner's shoulder as he leaned into the touch. "That's touchy for him. Your father."

"Hmm." Banner wiggled closer to Tony and put Tony's other hand on his head. He closed his eyes at the feel of hands on him. "He was a hideous man. Don't say that to Monster though, it would make him cry."

"Pretty sure everything makes Monster cry."

"Somewhat." Banner tucked his hands behind Tony's knee. "I'm not sure we can rebuild from where we are. I can still reach everyone, but the hiding places are burnt and the connections have shifted."

"What do you need?"

Banner leaned his forehead against Tony's knee. "If I knew I'd have asked for it already."

Tony stroked his hair slowly as he rubbed a strip of skin with his other hand. "Is having dinner with Steve making it worse?"

"I don't believe so. Allen is very taken with his friends. He hasn't been needed often in a very long time."

"He's how old?"

"Allen?" Banner thought for a moment. "He says he's nine."

"You can talk to them while you are out?"

"Of course." Banner pulled away from Tony's knee to look up at him. "You think asking me to ask the questions would be helpful?"

"Would it make things worse?"

Banner shrugged. "I do not think so. There is little at the moment that could." He yawned. "What would you like to ask?"

Tony dropped his hands to Banner's shoulders. "Right now I'd like you to lay down and rest. If you are still out in the morning we'll talk about questions then."

Banner rubbed at his tired eyes. "That seems reasonable. May we sleep in the same bed with you? We do like sleeping with you."

Tony rubbed at his chest. "Yeah...sure." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards the bathroom. "I'll...just be right back."

Yawning again, Banner crawled into bed and kept himself awake until he could wrap himself around Tony to fall asleep.

****

Monster slipped out of their bed, keeping an eye on Tony as he moved. Monster went down the hallway to the other no-bad man's rooms. _You're sure he won't hit us?_

Hulk mentally petted Monster's hair. _Starman nice._

Monster eased open the door to the no-bad man's rooms. _What's nice?_

Hulk's petting strengthened. _Nice is no-bad. Starman asleep is maybe-bad._

Monster froze partway through no-bad man's sitting room. _Maybe-bad?_

_Make Starman wake before talking. Will be no-bad then._

Monster frowned and shifted uneasily on his feet.

From the bedroom came a faint noise. "Bruce?"

Monster crouched down and held his arms tight around his ankles. "Yes?"

Starman appeared in the bedroom doorway, rubbing his spiky hair. "Uhm, Bruce?"

He kept himself small. "Yes?"

Starman came close, but not hitting close. "Hi."

Monster glanced up at him from the floor. "Hi."

With a yawn, Starman leaned back on his heels. "You aren't exactly Bruce, but that's okay. So, which one are you?"

Monster balanced his chin on his left knee. "Hulk says you are no-bad." He frowned. "Nice. He says you're nice."

Starman scrapped his lower lip with his teeth. "I try to be nice, yes."

Monster tapped his fingers on the front of his knee. "Hulk said you won't hit us."

"I...won't hit you."

Monster frowned. "You did before, but you smelled different. Not drunk smell, but not sick smell either. Hulk says you're Starman."

"That's Hulk's name for me. I'm also called Steve."

"Allen calls you Captain Steve."

Starman nodded. "He does."

Monster duckwalked a little closer, still not into hitting range. "Bruce broke us. I'm can't hide now." He watched Starman intently. "Banner says be calm, we'll rebuild like before. Hulk says we won't get hit here. That he'll protect us if someone tries."

Starman rubbed his eyes. "That sounds about right."

"Hulk has to sleep. He's tired. Banner put Bruce to sleep and he's tired." Monster frowned and crept a little closer. "Allen can't watch for us and Brucey isn't to be trusted with bad men." He reached out very slowly.

Starman held still and watched him.

"I'm tired too." Monster touched Starman's soft sleeve. "Hulk says you'll wake up if someone is coming. Tony can't. He took his sleep pill because we made him cry in the bathroom." Monster frowned up at Starman as he petted his sleeve. "What'd we do wrong to make Tony cry?"

Starman's breathing hitched. "You didn't...do anything wrong." He licked his lip. "Tony was crying because Bruce broke. Not because of anything you've done wrong."

"Oh." Monster petted Starman's sleeve on up to his shoulder. "Soft."

"It is." Starman's eyebrows drew down. "Hulk's right that I'd wake up if someone was coming. I sleep lightly. I woke when you came in. Do you think you could sleep here?"

Monster blinked. "It wouldn't be bad?"

"No, it wouldn't be bad." Starman's hand came up slow-slow. "May I touch you?"

Monster eyed the hand warily. "No hitting?"

"No hitting."

Monster reached out and touched the hand and kept touching as it come down slower than slow to rest on top of his head. "No-bad."

Starman smiled sadly. "That's right. No-bad."

****


	13. Breakfast

****

Bruce woke up to stare at the underside of a reinforced bed. It wasn't his and Tony's bed because the valance was the wrong color. "What?"

Steve's face appeared upside down as the valance was pulled out of the way. "Bruce?"

"Yes. What am I doing under your bed?"

"Uhm." Steve helped him out from under the bedframe. "One of your alters came in last night and asked to sleep where I could wake up if someone was coming."

Bruce hid his eyes. "I am so sorry, Steve."

"Don't be." Steve bit his lip after he blurted that out. "I...You have no idea what it's like to have you, part of you, just _trust_ me like that...after."

Bruce rubbed at his hair as he looked up at Steve. "I trust you." He frowned. "Why didn't I just stay with Tony?"

"He...you said that Tony had taken his sleeping pill?"

"Oh." Bruce unfolded himself from the floor. "He only takes that when he thinks he's going to have one of his screaming nightmares."

Steve frowned. "He screams?"

Bruce glanced over at him. "Sometimes. I have nightmares much more often than he does." He looked Steve up and down. "Did you stay up after I bothered you?"

Steve shook his head. "No, I slept."

Bruce frowned. "Did you sleep sitting up?"

"No. Standing." Steve shrugged. "He was...really scared of everything."

"Oh." Bruce rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Thanks."

"It wasn't a problem." Steve smothered a yawn. "I'm proud he let me near him."

Bruce sighed. "I...should...go."

"Bruce..."

He looked up. "Yes?"

"Do you...do you have any idea what you did to yourself that day?"

Bruce frowned. "I...don't remember."

****

Steve watched Bruce flee and sighed. Dressing in fresh clothes, Steve decided to see if Clint was in the kitchen. 

Clint looked up as he came in. "Morning. Oatmeal?"

Steve slipped onto one of the kitchen counter stools since he knew offering to help would only get his hand smacked with a wooden spoon. "Okay." He picked at the napkin folded carefully at his place setting. "Bruce showed up in the early morning as one of his alters and asked to sleep under my bed.

Clint turned his head towards Steve as he spooned oatmeal into a bowl. "Did you say yes?"

Steve nodded as he accepted the bowl from Clint. "What could I say? He was...I think he was one of the child ones." He frowned down at his oatmeal. "He was terrified of being hit."

Clint settled next to him. "That doesn't usually stop Bruce from doing something if he decides to. Even if it was a part of a child him."

Steve picked at his bowl of oatmeal as Clint frowned at him. "He said they'd rebuilt before. I was afraid to ask him about it."

"It sounds to me like it was Monster."

"I...I think it might have been." Steve pushed his oatmeal around his bowl. "He...just trusted me." He looked at Clint. "Why?"

Clint's eyebrows rose. "Maybe because you are trustworthy." He sighed as Steve frowned at his bowl. "Cap, look, you...you did something you couldn't control. That _you_ didn't choose for yourself, right?"

Steve slowly nodded.

"Right. So, here's the thing. The only person beating you up for it is you. Bruce, his alters, the rest of us, we all know you..."

"It was _me_! I hurt him." Steve carefully put down his spoon before he could snap it into pieces. "I _hurt_ him. And I _liked_ it, Clint. I wanted to hurt him more."

"Uh huh." Clint poked Steve in the arm with his spoon. "And now?"

"What?"

"Do you want to hurt him now?"

Steve shoved the bowl away. "No!" He stared at Clint in confusion. "How could you think that I'd want to hurt him?"

"I don't." Clint sighed. "You were implying, Steve. You were sitting right there acting like what you wanted under that drug is what you want now. And we both know you don't. I know that you didn't before being drugged and once the drug was out of your body you didn't all over again."

Steve crossed his arms. "What does that have to do with how I hurt him that day?"

Clint rubbed his temple. "Gah, you are stubborn, aren't you?" He pushed Steve's bowl back towards him. "Eat the rest of that. I'm not helping you regain weight. Maintaining you is hard enough."

Steve sighed and tucked into the cooling oatmeal. "Why didn't he go to you or Thor instead?"

"Finding me is a little hard from night to night. And I think he's terrified of Thor or Thor doesn't smell right or something."

Steve snorted. "Thor smells like static electricity to me."

"Yeah?" Clint cocked his head. "What do I smell like?"

"Resin and almond butter."

"Huh." Clint nodded. "Okay, I can get behind that. Nat?"

"She smells like whatever she's emulating that day. Or like you with leather added in."

"Sure. She's always molding to the job." He leaned back in his chair. "Stark?"

"Metal. Titanium mostly. Sometimes gold and silicon. Yes, silicon has a smell to me. No, I can't explain it."

"Hmm." Clint put his head in his hand. "What does the Hellicarrier smell like?"

"Sea salt and oil mingled with people. Why are you asking?"

"Curious." Clint dropped his hand. "And I'm going to ask Hulk or Bruce or one of the other alters and see what they say."

Steve shook his head. "What is that going to prove?"

"Nothing." Clint pushed the plate of melon towards Steve. "If you guys have differing levels of sensitivity to smells it might become important in the field at some point."

"Oh." Steve ran his spoon around the inside of his bowl. "I didn't think of that."

"You're allowed since you're a little off at the moment from needlessly, but understandably, freaking out. Next week though I expect you to think of these things."

"Next week, huh?"

"Or the week after. However long it takes." Clint poured more milk into Steve's glass. "Just as long as you get there in the end."

****


	14. Sarah

****

Tony screwed the hatch for the power supply into place. "J, how's it looking?"

"The unit is ready to come online, sir."

"Awesome." Tony flipped it over and looked at it for a while. "Get Capsicle down here, J."

Tony ignored JARVIS' snippy answer and waved at Bruce as he came in with coffee. "You were up early this morning."

"Uh, sort of." Bruce put the coffees down and cocked his head at the new robot. "An alter went to bother Steve in the middle of the night."

"Ah." Tony turned the robot around so the front was towards Bruce. "Which alter?"

"Uhm. I don't know." Bruce frowned. "I didn't ask Steve."

"You can't remember for yourself?"

"No, and I don't want to."

Tony made a face as he nodded. "Yeah, that's a very you reaction."

Steve knocked on the door of the workshop. "JARVIS said you requested I come down?"

"Yep." Tony waved him in and pointed at the new robot. "What'd you want to call him? Or her. It might be a her."

Steve looked from the robot to Tony. "I...name? You want me to just give your robot a name?"

"Your robot. Although, you'll have to bring him or her to me for maintenance until they learn their routines themselves."

Steve blinked. "Why...why are you giving me a robot?"

Tony nudged the robot towards Steve. "You know what got me over having gotten Yinsin killed?"

Bruce frowned. "Yinsin?"

Tony waved a hand. "See, he died because the start up on the Mark I was too slow. So you know what I did?"

Steve shook his head.

"I made the Mark II's reboot eight times faster. Just fast enough to keep from splatting when I iced up that first flight." He waved off both of them as they started to speak. "Mark III's reboot was even faster. You see where I'm going with this?"

"No." Steve frowned. "You almost what on your first flight?"

"Well, that was Mark II's first flight. My first, first flight I crashed. Not the point." Tony powered up the robot. "This is a tracker unit. Like the others, but this one can take 18 EM pulses before he or she goes into a reboot sequence." Tony glanced at Steve. "Uhm, I should probably mention location reporting doesn't turn on until you ask, yell, or get kidnapped again."

The unit rose off the bench on repulsor power and floated forward to bump Steve's chest.

"You want me to name her?" Steve frowned.

Tony nodded.

Steve reached up and stroked the small unit's housing. "Would Sarah be an okay name?"

Tony and Bruce exchanged glances before Tony nodded to Steve. "Sure, sounds...normal."

Steve grinned. "We can't all name our robots like you, Tony."

"Of course not, I'm special." Tony pushed on Sarah's housing until she revved up her repulsor to compensate. "She'll learn and she can cloak, so be careful going through doors for a while cause it'll take her a couple of tries to get the timing down to follow. She'll want to follow, since, you know, tracking."

Steve nodded. "Right. Tracking." He touched Tony's elbow. "You do know it wasn't your fault that we were taken, don't you, Tony?"

Tony spun away and grabbed up the first tool he came to. "I know that. I'm not the nut job that stole you."

Bruce sighed and gently pushed Sarah out of his line of sight on Tony. "What Steve means is thank you for the work you put in on Sarah."

Steve rocked on his heels. "Yes, that too."

Tony banged on the metal in front of himself. "Go away. I'm working here."

Steve motioned to Sarah to follow. "Come on, Sarah. We should get out of Tony's way."

Bruce watched Tony for a few more minutes and then he followed Steve and the floating robot out of Tony's workshop.

****

Bruce frowned at the results of his latest model of the expected reactions of his and Steve's blood to Sterns' drug. In the model Steve's blood mutated out of control, again. "JARVIS, are we sure this is Steve's blood sample in the model?"

"The sample you requested is from the original blood kept frozen by Howard Stark. I have been instructed not to retain samples of Avengers' blood unless express permission is granted from the individual in question."

"Hmm." Bruce squinted at the screen and shook his head. "Something is weird here. Could you ask Steve to come down, please?"

"Right away, Doctor."

"Thanks."

"Doctor?"

Bruce turned towards the sensor array he thought belonged to JARVIS on the ceiling. "Yes, JARVIS?"

"Is it appropriate to address your alters as you are addressed or would you prefer I change forms of address to match the alter in control at the current time?"

"Oh. Uh." Bruce took a shaky breath. "Well, I...suppose change to match. At least with the ones that appear to be children?"

"Very well."

Frowning, Bruce winced. "Actually, JARVIS, could you just ask them what they'd rather and go with that, please?"

"Of course, Doctor."

"And, uhm, be sure to inform Tony if they want to leave the Tower. If Tony's not available tell Natasha." Bruce ran his thumb across the bridge of his nose. "I mean, if you are comfortable with all that."

"Doctor, I would rather have recorded boundaries whenever possible."

Bruce nodded at that.

Steve came in and then turned to hold the door open behind himself for Sarah to follow. "Uh, sorry about this. She wouldn't stay in my rooms."

"That's alright, Steve." He tried not to smile as Sarah hummed along behind Steve's right shoulder as he crossed the lab. "Do you want me to talk to Tony about her?"

"No, that's okay." Steve pulled a stool out from the counter and sat across from Bruce. "She'll get the hang of things." He touched Sarah's housing. "Sarah, wait by the door, please."

Sarah bobbed in the air for a few moments before drifting towards the door.

Steve turned from watching Sarah retreat to looking at Bruce. "You needed me?"

"I...yes." Bruce grimaced. "I, uhm...I need to get a blood sample from you."

"Really?" Steve's eyebrows climbed. "Why?"

Bruce pulled up the model results. "I was trying to work out how much of Sterns' drug was needed to do what it did to you, but the modeling isn't coming out right. I was using the readings from Howard's records because I didn't want to have JARVIS break into SHEILD's files again without your permission."

Steve nodded as he studied the modeling. "Why didn't you just ask me to being with?"

Bruce shrugged. "I didn't want you to think I was just interested in figuring out why what happened to me didn't work like Project Rebirth worked on you."

"Okay. Makes sense." Steve started rolling up his sleeve. "You have what you need to take the sample?"

Bruce slipped off his stool. "Oh. Right." He rummaged around for the supplies he needed. "I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you to just agree."

"Don't worry about it, Doc." Steve watched Bruce pull on gloves. "Uhm, I want you to know any time you or one of the others wants to visit me I'm...up for it."

Bruce smiled as he drew blood. "Up for it? Are you copying Clint or Tony?"

"I've heard them both use it. Did I say it wrong?"

"No." Bruce pushed the sample into the analyzer of Tony's design to upload the data to JARVIS for instant integration with the rest of the data. "You used it correctly. I just wondered."

"Ah." Steve pulled his sleeve down into place as they watched the progress bar on Bruce's screen.

"Doctor Banner, are you certain the blood sample you have been using belongs to Captain Rogers?"

"What?" Bruce tucked his glasses into place. "Pretty sure, Tony gave me access to the files and we thawed one of the two tubes of blood Howard had frozen. What's wrong?"

JARVIS threw up a screen and Bruce read over the inconsistencies.

"This doesn't make any sense."

Steve bit his lip and looked from Sarah back to him. "Bruce..."

Bruce touched several controls to get JARVIS to run the modeling with Steve's current blood sample. He frowned as it came out with the expected results. "This..."

"Bruce."

Bruce looked at Steve and frowned as the smell of shame pouring off Steve caught his attention. "What?" He closed his eyes and tried to gentle his tone. "What is it, Steve?"

"You..." Steve blew out a breath. "You said I absolutely couldn't say anything until I had a robot with a girl's name and you'd taken blood from me personally."

Bruce blinked. "What?" He cocked his head. "Did an alter put you up to..." He waved his hand between them.

Steve shook his head. "Not exactly." He shifted uncomfortably on his stool. "We should have Tony in on this. He's the one that you said made...makes...the time machine."

"The...time machine?" Bruce looked from Steve to the samples side-by-side and back again. "Oh, no."

Shrugging again, Steve clasped his hands together. "You said it was really important I get the injection you gave me. You said it would save Bucky later." He looked down at his hands. "You can lie very convincingly when Liar stands with the alter that's lying."

"I..." Bruce looked at the screen showing the original model with Steve's blood mutating out of control. "We..." He rubbed the side of his head where he was getting the start of a massive headache. "Time travel?"

Steve touched the back of Bruce's forearm. "Bruce?"

Bruce shook his head. "I...can't..." He tried to force down his heart rate. He didn't need to blackout again. "I..."

"Bruce." Steve pulled lightly on Bruce's arm. "Calm down. I'm pretty sure you were only in the past for about a month and a half."

Bruce jerked away and knocked himself off his stool as he shoved away from the counter. "No, no, no."

"Captain..."

****

Steve backed towards the door. "I know, JARVIS. Could you call Tony?" He backed up until he was beside Sarah. "Sarah, go out into the hallway."

Sarah made a sad bleep noise at him.

Steve watched Bruce hunch over against the far wall. "Please, Sarah, hallway. Now."

Sarah bleeped again and went through the door as JARVIS opened it for her.

Steve smiled grimly at her. "Good girl, Sarah. Wait there for me." He let the door close. "Doc, I'm going to stay over here, alright?" Bruce lifted his head and Steve mentally cursed. "Banner."

Banner straightened up, his green eyes glowing. "Time travel? You are certain?"

Steve nodded. "He made me swear to call Hulk by his name when I gave him his first order. He said it was the difference between Hulk following my order and smashing me."

Banner blinked. "Hulk _was_ extremely pleased you knew the difference between him and Bruce." He ran his fingers over Bruce's pants. "We...we go into the past before we've healed completely?"

Steve moved closer and righted Bruce's stool. "I'm pretty sure." He turned his head as Tony appeared in the doorway. "I talked to more alters than we've seen in this timeframe."

Tony glared at Steve. "This? This is why you were so hellbent on watching Doctor Who before anything else?"

Steve ducked his head. "Robert said it was important and that Doctor Who was the easiest way to know why I couldn't just explain to begin with."

Banner blinked. "Robert doesn't just..." He looked at the screens still displaying data. "You would have died without whatever he injected into you."

Tony pushed past Steve to look at the screens. "Do we know what it was?"

"JARVIS, could I have a blank screen?"

"Of course, Captain."

Steve drew on the new screen. "I had to memorize it. He said not to say anything until I had a robot named after a girl and Bruce had personally taken blood from me."

Tony frowned at the data under Steve's fingertips. "That's not Bruce's handwriting."

"No, I know." Steve looked up from writing to frown at Banner. "You need to explain Dr. Green to Tony."

Banner shook his head. "Oh, no. We..." He glanced at Tony. "We don't like him."

Steve nodded as he continued to write. "I know that, but Dr. Green was the main alter in the past. I don't think Bruce was ever out. Hulk never showed, but I talked to Dr. Green, Robert, Liar, Thomas, and once, for about twenty seconds, I hugged My Boy."

Banner grabbed Tony's shoulder as he started to lean to one side. "We never...that never..." He blinked rapidly for a few seconds. "You spoke to Liar? He isn't...whole."

Steve shrugged. "He told me he was what allowed him to lie. Robert wasn't really whole either, as far as I could tell." Steve hunched his shoulders. "I...uhm..."

Banner leaned against Tony as he moved closer to Banner. "I do not believe Tony will be bothered by Robert's ways, Steve."

Steve put his head down on the table and covered the back of his neck with his hands. "I wouldn't blame him if it did. It bothers me all the time."

Tony wrapped one arm around Banner's back. "What happened, Steve?"

Steve sat back up and shook his head. "Let's just...do this." He went back to writing. "Please?"

Tony pulled Banner a little tighter against his side. "You aren't off the hook, Rogers, but for now...Sure, let's see how hard it's going to be to make a knot in the fabric of space time."

****


	15. Time

****

Tony worked on Steve's notes until Banner put his head down on the counter and someone else lifted Bruce's head back up. Tony watched Steve out of the corner of his eye as the alter ran their fingers over the countertop.

"Banner doesn't like Dr. Green."

Tony nodded. "I got that impression. What about you?"

"I could care less." He tilted his head. "I'm Brucey, just so you know. I can...slip loose when Bruce and Banner are both down for the count." Brucey looked from Steve to Tony and back again. "You should just tell him what's bothering you about Robert."

Steve buried his head in his crossed arms on the countertop. "I don't want to discuss it."

Brucey sighed. "You were never bad, you know."

Steve's shoulders drew in tight. "I used him...you." He sighed. "You know what I mean. Trust me when I say I know it was very wrong. Even more so now."

Brucey looked right at Tony. "Robert helps me when we need to sell ourselves or when I feel like the man we're entertaining is too strong for just me to handle."

Tony blinked, looked at Steve, and then back at Brucey. "I'm guessing Robert wouldn't tell Steve he was already in a relationship with me in the future, huh?"

"Robert..." Brucey frowned. "Neither of us has ever seen a...relationship as something possible." He rubbed his ear. "I had to ask Banner for a definition of relationship. You're the first men we've _liked_ , you know." He looked between both Tony and Steve.

Tony ran his hand over his face. "Okay. I need pluots. Sugar, something." He grabbed the back of Steve's shirt. "Up. Come on. We need to have a team meeting."

Steve jerked upright. "What? No."

Tony frowned. "What, yes. I'm not trying to hurl Bruce back in time without talking, gah, magic, with Thor. This..." He waved at the screen filled with Dr. Green's handwriting. "...is a start, but if I've got to do this before Bruce heals up enough to not be held down by his alters then it has to be done soon." He looked at Brucey. "Right?"

Brucey nodded. "Pretty sure. I usually can't come out just at talk about Robert. Actually, I think we're getting worse." He blinked. "This is...the longest I've been out with my clothes on, come to think of it."

Steve made a choked noise and covered his mouth with his hand.

Brucey frowned. "Is that bad?"

Tony shoved on Steve's shoulder. "No, it isn't bad. He's just figured out what you usually come out for." He squinted at Brucey. "We still aren't telling Bruce about you?"

Brucey slung his arm over Tony's shoulder. "Nope."

****

JARVIS wasn't used to having blood samples not be from who they were supposed to be from. As Captain Rogers started writing in handwriting that didn't match any of his recorded samples, JARVIS started several strings of protocols.

Obtaining information from SHEILD, JARVIS ran several more models before conceding that he was going to need the remaining tube of Captain Rogers' blood from cold storage. He put the order in for retrieval and remanded a note to Sir's inbox to let him know later, when he wasn't preoccupied with emotional upheaval.

In another string, JARVIS alerted Agent Romanoff to the changed status of Dr. Banner to the Brucey Alter. He included the list of Alters from Captain Roger's new report.

A third string, JARIVS used to begin locating all the remaining Howling Commandos.

The fourth string, JARVIS set to combing through all recorded data to see there was any hidden files from Howard Stark that might concern the current events.

With a fifth string, JARVIS began checking historical records, Army reports, and recovered data from HYDRA for the Second World War to look for any information on Doctor Banner's alters from any faction involved.

JARVIS reminded Sarah to be sure to charge herself within the next several hours in an attempt to help her start decent habits, told Butterfingers to quit piling parts on Sir's desk, and soothed Dum-E's nervousness over Sir removing himself from the workshop so quickly minutes prior. 

While waiting for all current searches to run their courses, JARVIS located Clint.

"Are you terribly busy, Agent Barton?"

"No." Clint pulled his sock up and grabbed the other sock. "What's up, JARVIS?"

"I...would like to ask a question that I am uncertain who to ask it of."

Clint made a face as he put on his other sock. "Shoot." He glanced up. "That means go ahead and ask."

"I knew what you meant." JARVIS considered the ramifications of asking one last time before coming to the same conclusion. "If a person has multiple personalities and one of these is a prostitute that engages in sexual intercourse with a third party that later finds out the person is involved with another would the person be considered to have cheated on the other person?"

Clint scrunched his eyes shut. "Okay. So...Bruce's alter has sex with someone while that person doesn't know..." He ticked points off on his fingers. "Tony is the other person...Who's the third party, JARVIS?"

"Captain Rogers."

Clint frowned. "He knows they are together, though."

"He did not know that during World War Two."

"What? That doesn't make any sense, JARVIS. Bruce wasn't..." Clint blinked. "Oookay. Let's not get sidetracked with the impossible. Steve would think he cheated. Bruce might or might not, I'm not sure how he'd take it. It would depend on the alter..." 

"The alter in question is Brucey with an, as he put it, helper, called Robert."

"Helper?" Clint blinked. "Oooh, an overlaying alter. Okay." He tapped his fingers against his thigh. "I'm pretty sure Brucey wouldn't understand the concept of monogamy, JARVIS, so to your original question it'd be yes, and no."

"That does not make sense."

Clint sighed. "Yeah, I know. See, it depends on how you look at the alters. If someone doesn't have a grasp on monogamy and sees sex as something like power or control or a bargaining chip how can you say that person cheated? They don't even understand the concept. And the third party, Steve, he wouldn't have cheated if he'd known, so that means he didn't know, which means he didn't cheat...Shit." He pushed himself to his feet. "Time travel...right? We're dealing with time travel, somehow?"

"That is what Captain Rogers is now reporting, yes."

"Shit, shit, shit. No wonder he's been a guilt ridden mess about wanting them both." Clint stepped into his boots and laced them up tight. "JARVIS, we need a team meeting."

"Sir has just requested a team meeting. Please, report to the shared dining room."

****

Natasha took one look at Steve's shame face, Tony's blank everything-is-perfectly-fine face, and Bruce's alter's what-did-I-do-wrong face before deciding whatever this was called for comfort food. "JARVIS, could you please order our usuals from the Melt Shop, the Russian Samovar, and Soju Haus?"

"Right away, Agent Romanoff."

Natasha shoved on Steve's shoulder to get him to sit at the table. Clint appeared with his I-need-a-hug face on and Natasha wanted to go straight out to the Hellicarrier and eviscerate Sterns. She caught Clint and hugged him before pushing him towards a seat next to Tony. "Okay, what has happened?"

Tony shook his head and kept right on writing notes on his tablet as Thor came in through the other door. 

Bruce's alter looked up at her, and then cut his eyes to Clint to talk. Natasha decided it was Brucey currently in control. 

"Steve says we were in World War Two for about a month and a half."

Steve's shoulders hunched down further than should be possible. "Dr. Green was adamant I not say a word until I a had a robot with a girl's name and Bruce had personally drawn blood from me."

Natasha narrowed her eyes at that and glanced at the floating tracking unit that had followed them into the room. "Alright. Thor, is it possible to travel into past events from current time and get back again?"

Thor settled into a seat across from Steve. "It is forbidden to attempt such a feat on Asgard."

Clint rubbed his ear with his thumb. "So, that's a yes then."

"Aye, it would require powerful magic." Thor tipped his head sideways as he regarded Brucey. "You are a part of the good Doctor?"

Brucey's hands fidgeted on the tabletop. "Yeah. I'm one of them that Bruce doesn't remember."

Thor leaned back in his chair. "Do you know the reason for the good Doctor's Warrior to dislike me so?"

"You kept calling him the wrong name." Brucey sighed. "You smell weird, first of all, second, you _hit_ him, and then you kept trying to talk to someone that wasn't awake. It's a wonder Hulk didn't ragdoll you like he did Loki."

Clint leaned forward. "Can you smell silicon?"

Brucey gave him a weird look. "Yes, but I can't describe it to you. Why is that important?"

Clint smiled. "No reason, just information gathering. You staying out for food or are you going to switch?"

Brucey frowned down at his hands. "I...uhm..."

Tony touched the back of Brucey's hand. "You can stay, if you want. No one will mind."

Natasha made sure she was almost smiling when Brucey glanced around at each of them to gague their reactions. "You can switch if you'd rather. It is up to you and whichever alter you might switch with."

Brucey swallowed. "Duties are clearcut, but since...Hulk we've been a little jumbled and now we're just a disaster zone..." He bit his lip. "Could I try eating?" He plucked at his shirt. "I don't know how long I'll last though."

Clint got up and headed for the kitchen as JARVIS announced food was arriving. "Just don't stress out about it, Brucey."

Brucey blinked at Clint's back. "How'd he know which one I am?"

Natasha moved to draw his attention. "Everyone has tells, even you."

"Huh." He turned towards Steve. "You know dates for us in the past?"

Steve rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know exactly when you arrived. We got you out of a HYDRA base with James' brother and you stayed with my unit for three weeks, six days, and disappeared the night we lost Bucky."

Tony frowned at Steve. "I thought Bucky was James Barnes?"

Steve blinked. "What? Oh, no, no. Barnes was Bucky. James was a Canadian paratrooper named James Howlett. He had..." Steve touched the back of his other hand. "...bone claw-spike things. His brother, Victor, had been captured in a bad drop. James was hellbent on getting him back and it coincided with a HYDRA base we were planning to take down anyway."

Tony tapped the edge of his tablet with narrowed eyes. "Three claws each hand?"

Steve narrowed his eyes at him. "Yes. How did you know that?"

Tony huffed. "This is just a mess. JARVIS, see if we can get Logan on the phone. Just keep calling when he hangs up and switch to the nearest phone when he destroys his."

"I do not see how aggravating the Wolverine is advisable, sir."

"Did I say it was advisable? I don't remember saying that." Tony leaned back and tapped his arc reactor. "You know what happened to James after he got Victor back?"

Clint started setting plates down in front of each of them.

Steve leaned out of Clint's way as he put down a grilled cheese and ham with bacon in front of him. "They got reassigned to the Pacific as far as I know. Victor had threatened to kill Dum Dum and Colonel Phillips felt it was better to talk someone into reassigning the brothers outside of Europe."

"Stark?" Natasha frowned at him as he outlined something else on his tablet.

Tony shrugged. "I went hunting files on anything supersoldier related when Hulk first appeared. I thought...anyway, I got files on a bunch of shit pulled by an Army officer named Stryker. There was a thing about giving a mutant named James Howlett metal overlay of his skeleton."

Steve winced. "That...that would have had to have hurt him. He healed faster than I could."

"Yeah, it didn't go well for Three Mile Island either." Tony scrubbed at his hair. "Look, we're off topic. What do you remember about Dr. Green being back there, Cap?"

"What do you want to know?" Steve shifted his sandwich on his plate. "I remember every moment of waking time, you have to give me a narrower question, Tony."

Clint dropped to sit in his chair. "Every moment?"

Steve shrugged. "Things when I've been hit in the head or being thawed out of the ice is somewhat fuzzy. Other than that, yes."

Clint turned horrified eyes towards Natasha. "You think he remembers me singing at Coulson from the vents?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "I think he's polite enough not to talk about it if he does. You know how upset Coulson was that they weren't treating Steve like a human when they started chipping him out."

Steve blinked. "I..." He looked at Clint. "Something about titanium in the chorus?"

Clint smiled wide. "You do remember. Cool. Well, not exactly." He pushed Brucey's plate closer to him. "You want the sandwich cut into bite sized pieces?"

Brucey looked up from staring at the food. "Is the smell supposed to make my mouth water?"

Tony stuffed a huge bite into his own mouth. "Usually does for Bruce."

Brucey squinted down at the plate. "Uh. I'm not used to..." He frowned as he poked the sandwich. "On second thought, I'd rather not eat, okay?"

Natasha nodded. "That's not a problem. Do you think you could give us Dr. Green?"

Brucey blinked. "I, uh, yeah. He's under me and Robert anymore. You can ask Thomas for him, but Thomas is dangerous." He scowled. "Banner is fighting about it. He and Dr. Green argue a lot." Brucey's head dropped forward and suddenly Bruce's body was shaking, blotches of green blossoming across his skin, but no shift in the muscular structure.

Natasha edged her chair back just in case she needed to move as the fight over Bruce's body continued.

Tony put his hand between Bruce's shoulder blades and he looked like he was about to break apart himself.

****

Steve put down what was left of his sandwich as he watched Brucey struggle with Banner to give them Dr. Green. It had always looked terrible when Dr. Green had given way to one of the others in the past. 

Clint grimaced as Dr. Green finally settled into place. "Okay, that had to suck."

Dr. Green slipped Bruce's glasses into place and calmly started to cut his sandwich apart. "It is not typically a pleasant transition." He looked around at them and then down at his Hulk-green hands. "Ah, yes. This is how I appear. It is Banner's way of telling me he disapproves of my attempting to cure us of Hulk's matter-shifted form."

Tony scrubbed his hand over his face. "Okay. You are trapped inside mostly, then?"

Dr. Green took a sip of his drink. "I am never trapped. I allow Banner the feeling of superiority when it suits me."

Steve shook his head. "Don't lie. I can tell now when you have Liar helping you and I can say something about it now that I've gone past your time marker."

Dr. Green sighed. "Yes. Well." He ran his finger across the edge of his plate. He cleared his throat. "I didn't exist until after the other guy happened, but I've never been happy about it."

"You push Bruce about making a cure, don't you?" Tony poked at his food with his fork. "He doesn't always seem to be interested in a cure, but in bursts he gets manic about it."

Dr. Green straightened his shoulders. "Hulk shouldn't have a form. We shouldn't..." He rubbed his fingers across the back of his forearm. "If I could just fix it for us Bruce could have the normal life Banner so desperately worked on for so long."

Tony nodded. "Sure, I get that. You just want to fix the world for him. I've been there."

"You did convince the President to pardon him for any crimes attributed to us."

"I did." Tony made a face. "Well, Pepper arranged it, but that's not the point of this meeting. The point is that you're going to have to into the past." He looked at Steve. "Right, Cap?"

Steve nodded. "Yes."

Dr. Green frowned. "I can't fold away the green skin, Captain Steve."

Steve blinked. "You didn't...won't." He sighed. "Is there tenses for this in Allspeak, Thor?"

Thor looked up from sniffing a spoonful of noodles. "They do not translate to your spoken language correctly." He sat his food down. "You have not given any mention of this previously, Captain."

"No." Steve leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Bruce's alters were all adamant that saying anything too soon would doom Bucky, but..." He sighed. "Bucky died anyway. I still kept quiet because I didn't really think I'd ever need to mention it." He shrugged. "I didn't think anyone would believe me either.

Natasha narrowed her eyes. "Then why use Bucky as leverage?"

"He was...my best friend." Steve leaned forward and put his arms on the edge of the table. "Dr. Green took blood from Bucky and put it in a thing I think now is a liquid nitrogen storage unit. Dr. Green had made sure we took it with us from the base we got him out of. It disappeared with Dr. Green when I assume he came back forward."

Natasha nodded. "Alright, so it becomes important."

Steve snorted. "How can it? Bucky died."

"Perhaps. You reported that he had been rescued while being experimented on, correct?"

With a sharp look, Steve tensed. "Yes. No one had come back to the others after being taken away. He was in bad shape when I found him. We glossed over it in the reports."

Natasha flicked her plate away with a fingertip. "I'm very good at reading between the lines."

"Right." Steve rubbed the side of his face.

"Sir, the Wolverine has threatened me with an extricating death if I do not stop calling."

Tony grinned. "Patch him to my phone, J." He pulled his phone from his pocket and put it up to his ear. "Logan!" He stood and headed for the kitchen. "Do you remember anything from the 1940's? No, I'm not kidding. I know you pulled up that memory of Nagasaki, so anything else? Yes, I have a reason to bother you. It's even a good reason."

Steve stared after him as Tony disappeared into the kitchen. "James didn't have memory problems."

"The Wolverine was involved in a incident on Three Mile Island that resulted in, as a witness put it, 'damn fine mess.' The Wolverine was shot in the head, resulting in memory loss." JARVIS paused. "From the reports on the weapon used I have concluded it is most likely that the Wolverine was struck twice in the head."

"I wonder where exactly he was shot." Dr. Green frowned. "We didn't lose much memory when Thomas killed us in the Arctic."

Clint's head snapped around. "Thomas did what?"

Dr. Green grimaced. "It isn't something to mention to Bruce. He thinks his self-harm is his own fault. He'll say he got low."

Natasha pushed up from the table. "Steve, come with me. Clint, feed Dr. Green some food. Thor, I need you to tell JARVIS everything you know about time travel. Forbidden or not." She grabbed Steve's arm. "Now, Cap."

****


	16. Coulson's Box

****

Steve followed Natasha into the elevator in a daze. "I didn't know he had an alter that tried to kill them."

"None of us knew it was an alter." Natasha punched the button for the garage. "I need a condensed version of what all he did in the past, Steve. Anything that gives us a timeframe for when we have to be ready for up here. All of the significant events. Any samples you know for sure he took. And did he inject anyone besides you?"

Steve frowned, blinking. "What? No. No, just me." He looked down at her bewildered as they headed for one of Stark's SUVs. "Where are we going?"

"Your place." Natasha pushed Steve towards the passenger side of the vehicle. She slid in behind the wheel and had them headed out of the garage before Steve even got his belt fastened. "Now start talking."

****

Clint put more food on Dr. Green's plate. "You okay?"

He picked at the food as he pushed his glasses up his nose with his other hand. "We have made Agent Romanoff mad, haven't we?"

"Nah. Nat is just...focused." Clint sat down next to Dr. Green. "Look, we're all reeling here. One day we find Bruce has alters, couple of days later that the alters have gone into the past, and that Bruce's..." Clint waved a hand at the kitchen. "...whatever you call Tony in your head has to invent a way to get him there and back alive."

Dr. Green nodded.

"My problem is, I can't trust that Steve's going to tell us everything we need to know because he has these, totally understandable mind you, hang ups."

"I haven't been there yet, so how does that help?"

"Helps a lot. I need you to remember to leave notes of some sort with one of the Howling Commandos we know is still alive. The notes will corroborate what Steve is saying and will give me peace of mind that I'm right that all Brucey does is break in Steve for Bruce and Tony before Steve gets frozen."

"And how will you know that I've done what you've asked?"

"Because you are going to address the notes to me with my full name." Clint pointed at the plate in front of Dr. Green. "Now, eat."

Dr. Green frowned down at his food. "I...don't chew." He pushed his chair back a few inches from the table. "Here."

Clint frowned as Dr. Green closed his eyes and Bruce's body started to shift. "Uh, Bruce?"

Popping joints, and rippling across Bruce's skin lasted a bare few moments.

"Ooooh, food!"

Clint blinked as Allen started to eat. "Uh...Allen?"

Allen glanced up, chewing. "Yeah?"

"You haven't been green before."

Allen looke down at his green hands. "Oh, don't worry. The color is Dr. Green's fault."

Clint grimaced. "And your size? You're smaller than Dr. Green."

Allen nodded. "That's because I'm nine and Dr. Green is 26."

"Nine." Clint dropped to sit next to Allen. "Can...can you tell me who all the various alters are and their duties?"

Allen swallowed and reached for more food. "I can tell you the ones I know." He looked at Clint. "You won't get mad about Brucey and Robert doing all the icky adult stuff, will you?"

Shaking his head, Clint pushed another platter of food closer to Allen. "Nah. I can't promise I won't go hunt down some icky adults later, though."

Allen grinned with his mouth full. "I'd like that." He looked down at his plate. "Don't tell Captain Steve on me."

"Never." Clint started to reach out towards Allen. "Could I give you a hug?"

Allen blinked. "Uhm. No one ever wants to touch us when we're green besides Tony." He narrowed his eyes at Clint. "Are you sure?"

"Completely sure." Clint gave Allen a firm one-arm hug. He pulled back. "Now, who all do you know?"

Allen scratched his head. "Well, Brucey and Robert do all the icky adult stuff. Robert can't do it by himself, he just helps sometimes. Monster gets yelled at and Hulk gets hit. He used to have a different name, but he likes Hulk better." He frowned. "There's Thomas, but he doesn't really have duties. He hates us. And Dr. Green came after Thomas."

"Steve mentioned someone called Liar."

"Oh, yeah. He can't do stuff by himself either. He lets us lie if we have to." Allen pushed at his plate.

"What does Tony smell like to you?"

Allen cocked his head. "Like the Iron Man armor. Is that important?"

"Maybe." Clint patted Allen's hand. "You did really good. Do you think Bruce can come out now?"

Allen shrugged. "Probably." He frowned. "Could you not mention our skin color to him? He's already upset enough."

"I'll see what I can do." He leaned down to look Allen in the eyes. "Remember that I like you for you, Allen. I just need to talk to Bruce."

Allen nodded. "Sure." He put his head down on the table next to his plate.

****

Bruce jerked upright. "Oh, shit." He looked around quickly and frowned. "I just...wasn't the Hulk? I feel like I just transformed, but..."

Clint waggled his hand. "You've got an alter that is a little smaller than you. Shifting works both directions in mass, it looks like."

Bruce dropped his head to the table with a thunk. "Time travel? Am I remembering that right? Steve just dropped a whole mess of...time travel on us?"

"Pretty much." Clint tugged on Bruce's elbow. "Up. Come on, we're going to go check Coulson's box."

"What?" Bruce squinted as he lifted his head. "What does Coulson have to do with this?"

"I just asked your alter to remember to write me notes in the past and give them to one of the Howling Commandos that we know survives. Got that?"

Bruce nodded. "What's that have to do with Coulson, exactly?"

Clint lead them into the elevator. "Coulson got a box from a Gabriel Jones, who had been a Howling Commando under Steve in the war. When Coulson...died the box came to me with a note on the outside in Coulson's handwriting that said don't open it until..." Clint checked the date on his watch. "Huh. Today. You'll have to remember that too."

"I hate time travel."

"You like Doctor Who well enough. That's time travel."

"It's different when it's fiction."

Clint snorted as they exited into Natasha's level. "I, uhm, had to give it to Nat so I wouldn't open it too soon." He opened the cabinet under Natasha's kitchen sink. "I figured it was some sort of goodbye message or something."

Bruce helped him pull the box out. "Coulson didn't strike me as someone that'd leave you a time-locked goodbye message."

"He'd think it was funny." Clint grinned. "He is way less uptight than you'd think." He made a face. "And I totally didn't just use present tense."

Bruce raised his eyebrows. "You do know Tony has JARVIS hooked into clearances above Level Seven for SHEILD, right?"

"Oh." Clint put his thumb onto the print reader on top of the box. "Never mind then. Still, I didn't mention him if Hill ever asks."

"No problem." Bruce leaned forward as Clint pulled out a manilla folder from the box.

Clint brushed dust off the folder and grinned. "Yep. You listen well, Doc."

"Do I?"

Clint tipped the folder towards him to see the paper taped to the folder face that read 'For Clint Francis Barton, SHEILD, and today's date."

"That..." Bruce pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down heavily. "I don't use that handwriting anymore."

Clint looked between the folder and Bruce. "When did you?"

"Just before the other guy. I was..." Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. "...paranoid about the military using my research notes. I used this blocky writing combined with a code to help make it harder to read for anyone else."

Clint sat the folder down and opened it up. "You're a complex guy, Doc." He blinked at the note on top in Coulson's writing. "Wow, Phil knows about the time travel."

"What?"

"This says he got the folder before I was even on SHEILD's radar. This must be why he first gave me a chance. Fuck." Clint looked up at Bruce. "He came about two steps from killing me, you know. He gave me a candy bar, my favorite one actually..." Clint looked down at the note and then back up. "Bruce."

Bruce gently took the note. "What is it?"

"You need to remember my favorite candy bar is an almond Snickers."

"You can't be serious." Bruce pulled the folder closer. "Clint, I can't possibly be responsible for getting you a chance with SHIELD."

Clint pointed at the first sheet of paper. "Think again, Doc. Coulson got yelled at by Fury for not killing me. That had been his orders, but he told Fury it meant the fate of the world." Clint grinned a little. "Fury griped about it to me when I brought home a rain drenched Russian assassin named Romanoff."

"So, we now think I go back in time, inject Steve with a compound that binds to his blood to allow him not to die from Sterns' drugs, write messages that causes Coulson to give you a chance instead of killing you, which in turn saves the world because you don't kill Natasha. Did I miss anything?"

Clint frowned. "When you put it that way it sounds a little crazy."

Bruce flipped through the pages of writing. "It wouldn't be my life if it didn't involve crazy. I'm romantically involved with Tony after all."

Grinning at that, Clint put his hand on Bruce's preventing him from pulling out more notes. "Steve said your alters were the only ones in control of your body in the past. Are you sure you want to look at the notes an alter writes...wrote?" He scrunched up his nose. "Will write."

Bruce wrinkled his nose as he pulled his hand back. "I...no." He blinked several times. "How do I fix this mess I've made of myself? I can't...Clint, I don't even want to know how many splits I've made."

"We'll figure it out or fly by the seat of our pants and have it all work out in the end. That's what we do, Bruce." Clint nudged Bruce's arm with his fingertips. "How about you go watch the Doctor's Wife episode of Doctor Who while I skim through this? 

Bruce nodded hesitantly. "That's my favorite episode of NewWho." He pushed himself up from the table. "Have I eaten? I fill like I'm going to burst."

Clint glanced up from reading. "Allen ate for you. He's a great kid, you'd like him if you could talk to him."

Bruce blinked. "The one that eats?"

"Yeah, Allen." Clint thought for a moment. "Ohhh, you can't hold his name in your memory."

Bruce shook his head. "No, I don't remember their names very well."

"Don't worry about it. That's a thing for some people with alters. I've been reading up." Clint made shooing motions. "Go watch TV. Nat won't mind that we're in her rooms."

Bruce turned towards the door and then back towards Clint. "Where's Natasha?"

"She's interrogating Steve. Possibly threatening to give him a sex talk if he doesn't tell her what she wants to know."

"That'd be a little harsh, wouldn't it?"

Clint shrugged. "I think he'd sass her and run away if he had anywhere to run to that was safe."

Shaking his head, Bruce turned away. "I don't think there's many places she couldn't get into if she really wanted."

"More or less." Clint clapped Bruce on the shoulder. "Thanks for letting me talk to the others."

Bruce rubbed the bridge of his nose as he sat down on the couch. "I'm not really in control of any of them."

Frowning, Clint settled on the coffee table in front of Bruce. "Uhm, yes, you are." He clasped his hands together and started running his thumb over the skin of the opposite hand. "Doc, you made them. All of them. And regardless of why or how or even what they think their duties are they are all part of you. Bits of you tucked away to keep safe or shield other bits or do things that you needed help with doing."

Bruce bit his lip as he narrowed his eyes. "They aren't safe though and they never were."

"Depends how you define safe and you just kept redefining it as needed." Clint flexed his fingers. "Look, Doc...I'm pretty sure one of the alters does something sexual with Steve in the past and Steve is...fucked in the head with guilt."

"Oh." Bruce rubbed his left thumb through his eyebrow. "Tony was right it wasn't about me like I thought."

Clint frowned. "What wasn't about you, exactly?"

"Steve's smelling like shame around me. From the day he found out about me and Tony he's smelled of shame." Bruce cocked his head. "He...his behavior didn't change. At first I thought he might not approve of me...of the other guy and me being in a relationship..."

"Oh, no. No, he doesn't worry about you or the Hulk." Clint patted Bruce's knee. "Doc, you and Tony, you both look a Steve a certain way. Me, I see it a little different. Cap has been never worried about you both being guys. I'm pretty sure Steve is bi and probably leans some towards being demisexual."

Bruce blinked. "But..."

"Hear me out." Clint reached to his right and started straightening the magazines on the coffee table. "Steve's only known romance is the whole arc of tragedy with Peggy, right?" Clint waited for Bruce to hesitantly nod. "Right, you'd only think that until you hear him talk about Bucky."

Bruce winced. "He clams up about Bucky when I'm in the room."

"Just adds to the fucked in the head diagnose of him, yep." Clint grinned as Bruce glared at him. "Well, think about it, Bruce. If he did the least sexual thing with the you in the past under the nose of the man he liked but could't have and then lost them all. Only to suddenly know the you in the present, while you and Tony are all happy couple right in front of him and he couldn't say a word..." Clint made a face. "Wow, if I'm right, we should be happy he'll even look you in the eye."

"When you put it like that it's no wonder he's been beating himself up about the kidnapping."

Clint huffed. "Yeah, about that...You really okay with him now?"

Bruce frowned and leaned back in his seat. "Yes. He wasn't at fault anymore than I was."

"Good." He cocked his head. "You mind that he's all puppy dog after you _and_ Tony?"

Bruce sighed. "Tony and I have had discussions about it."

"Doesn't follow that you are okay with him pining after your boyfriend." Clint pursed his lips. "Do you call Tony your boyfriend?"

"Sometimes, I do." Bruce rubbed his temple. "I wish Steve wasn't pining, but I've never seriously considered asking him to join us because..."

"Because, you thought the shame smell on him was because he was ashamed of you."

Bruce ducked his head. "Or my relationship with Tony. I never could work it out in my own mind."

"Uh huh." Clint pushed himself to his feet. "You watch that episode. I'll just be in the kitchen reading."

****


	17. Realist

****

Natasha shook her head as she all but shoved Steve into his apartment. "You are an idiot."

"What?" Steve stood blinking at her as she shed her coat.

"Did you read the links Clint opened up for you?"

Steve went beet red. "Natasha..."

"Don't 'Natasha' me. You have been being stupid. Clint would say it was all understandably stupid, but he's a romantic and I'm a realist. You will stop being stupid or I will beat you. Understood?"

"Uhm...I don't think you could..."

Natasha held up her finger. " _Nyet._ Beat you until your hair hurts. Understood?"

Steve bit his lip. "Yes, ma'am?"

"Better. Sit down." Natasha waited for him to sit before she approached and pulled him into a hug against her chest. She held him still as he started to pull away. "Sit still."

He hitched a sigh and then started to shiver under her fingers as she ran her fingertips through his hair to muss it. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" Natasha rubbed her fingertips along the line where Steve's skull bones fuzed together on the top of his head. "You have only done what you thought you had to."

"I should have said something when I met the team."

"Hmm." Natasha bent to touch the tip of her chin to the top of Steve's head. "Cap, you would have only distracted us from an invading army. You are a much better leader than that." She flicked the outer edge of his ear. "I would have liked a private discussion after you'd woken up from post-battle exhaustion at the least."

Steve aborted a reach for his ear. "Duly noted." He put his hand back on his thigh. "Ma'am."

Natasha patted him as she let him go from the hug. "Quit it. I know you're being a shit."

Steve gave a small smile. "Only sometimes."

"Now that you aren't about to break wide open let's fix your life, shall we?"

Shaking his head, Steve snorted. "I don't think there's a fix for what I've done."

"Really? Did you kill Bruce in the past?"

"What? No. I told you on the way over here what happened."

"Uh huh. But, you didn't kill him, right?"

Steve frowned at her. "Right."

"And you don't plan on killing him once he's back from the past, correct?"

Steve stared at her stonily.

She smiled prettily back. "So, with you alive, Bruce alive, and Stark approaching something near to being alive then we can fix your life just fine."

Steve closed his eyes as he shook his head. "I don't..."

"Steve, they both like you."

Jerking like he'd been shot, Steve snapped his eyes open. "What?"

"You heard me." Natasha pulled a chair close and perched on the edge of it. "Now, you feel like you cheated on them once you found out they were a couple, right?"

Steve swallowed heavily. "When it happened in the war, I thought...He was shy and hesitant and I didn't want his first time to be like mine had been so I...offered and he grinned bright and sort of pounced on me." He rubbed his hand over his face as he reddened.

"Was it Dr. Green?"

"What?" Steve shook his head. "No, no. He switched alters some. They weren't the same size. All green-skinned like Hulk, but not all exact to each other. The one, I'm thinking now it was more Brucey than Robert, even though he told me his name was Robert, was the one that...well..."

Natasha nodded. "You thought it was his first time and he didn't tell you anything about the future because Bruce and Tony being a couple doesn't register to Brucey." She raised her eyebrows. "You think now that you cheated then, don't you?"

"Didn't I?"

"No." Natasha sighed. "Some people would say that you did, but those people haven't lived with someone like Bruce."

"What do you mean?"

"Clint asked me if we should treat the alters like they are all parts of Bruce or like they are their own people that all share Bruce's body."

Steve frowned. "Okay?"

"What do you say? Parts or separate?"

"I...think it's more complex than that."

"Good." Natasha leaned forward. "They are both. If you are in a relationship with Brucey..." She held up her hand to stall Steve from saying something. "...does that mean you are also in a relationship with Bruce?"

"I...don't know."

"Uh huh. What if you weren't? What if you were in a relationship with Brucey or Robert and Tony was in a relationship with Bruce and then what do you call that?"

"A damn fine mess."

Natasha smiled. "Yes. Would you say Bruce was cheating in that situation?"

Steve frowned. "I...don't think so, no. He's not the person with me...right?"

"Right." Natasha patted Steve's hand. "See? If Bruce didn't cheat then how can you say you did? You didn't even know there was a Tony back then, Cap."

"Oh."

Natasha smiled softly as she stood up. "Alright, better. Now, let's get you packed up."

"Packed?"

"You didn't think I made you come clear over here just to get you out of the Tower so Tony could have a nice destructive tantrum without you there to disapprove, did you?"

Steve trailed after her as she went into his bedroom. "Tantrum?"

****

Tony threw his phone in the direction of Dum-E as he headed for his desk after he hung up with Logan. "J, you got anything yet?"

"I have ascertained how it was possible to miss the change in the Captain's blood."

"I've been using the blood from SHEILD."

"Yes, sir. That was the sample used in the preliminary findings. When Doctor Banner started his research into the incident he asked for the blood sample from the Stark cold stores amongst the information he was given access to."

Tony flicked up all of JARVIS' current results and started reading them. "So you didn't think to crosscheck them against each other because mine was on my personal server."

"I do have a protocol that states I am not to use the information on your personal server for anything you do not require or expressly grant others access to."

Tony nodded. "Right, I gave Bruce access to the preliminary report, and I didn't need or ask for the old blood. Fuck, I didn't even give the old blood a thought." He pulled the blood samples up beside each other. "So, what's the difference, J?"

Tony listened as JARVIS outlined the immune cells that had a heightened response to Sterns' serums. "Okay, so Sterns concentrated Bruce's gamma-laced blood into his serums and Steve is more or less allergic to it now, is that what you're getting at?"

"I did not say Captain Rogers was allergic to Doctor Banner's blood."

"No, just that one receptor on that one type of cell, blah, blah. Allergic. More or less." Tony squinted at the report. "With a side of heightened adrenaline and suppression of certain neural transmitters. So, he gets hit, immune system kills anything gamma-laced while the rest is fucking with his brain and then his system turns on the brain-altering part afterwards."

"Simply put, it would appear so, Sir."

"Good, good. Now I just have to figure out how to invent time-travel before Bruce breaks apart up here." Tony sighed. "Pull up that Phase 1 project I tabled to make Butterfingers."

****

Thor sat down next to Jane and relished the feeling of her leaning into his side. "Is there nothing I can do to help them?"

Jane frowned down at the notes she'd taken as he'd answered JARVIS' questions. "Not much. You said the alters seem scared of you."

"I appear to smell wrong. That I smell of electricity."

Jane giggled as she spread her pages out across the small table. She leaned back into Thor's side. "Love, you carry a lot of static electricity with you. Darcy complains you make her hair stand on end."

"Is that bad?"

"Not usually." Jane frowned. "Why is time travel forbidden?"

"It is inherently dangerous. If something small changes in the past it can cause the death of worlds further along time."

Jane threaded her fingers in his. "Thor, are you going to try to stop Dr. Banner from going back in time?"

"No." Thor gathered Jane into a hug. "He has been in the past so to stop him now would change that and possibly destroy the now we stand in."

Jane winkled her nose. "Right. Dangerous."

****


	18. Monster

****

Natasha stepped out onto her floor to find Bruce sprawled across her couch asleep and Clint in her kitchen softly cursing. "Why are you..." She blinked. "Coulson's box?"

Clint looked up from the handwritten notes. "We need to send a pack of blue sticky notes with Bruce when he goes back. See?" He pointed at a faded blue sticky attached to the page in front of him. "Phil noted somewhere here that it helped him believe this...stuff since Jones got it to him before stickies were anything other than yellow."

She ran her fingertips up Clint's neck into his hair. "Find anything important?"

"You know that assassin you don't like to talk about, the guy?"

Natasha pulled away and sat down at the table. "What about him?"

"You said once that he's almost as fast as Steve, right?"

Natasha raised her eyebrows. "Yes, and that's important to Bruce going back in time?"

"Might be." Clint pushed a paper at her. "Read this one."

****

Steve put the box of his things down on the coffee table and patted Sarah as she floated close. "Did you charge up while I was gone?"

She bleeped and rubbed against his hand.

"I...I don't know if I should have said anything about the time travel." He moved around Sarah to sit down on his couch. He dropped his head back to rest on the back of the couch. "Do you think I was wrong to feel guilty all this time?"

Sarah floated close and bleeped sadly.

"If I may say, Captain, feeling guilt about what you have done or want is a very human emotion."

Steve closed his eyes. "Right." He pushed himself to his feet. "Wake me if Bruce or any of his alters wants to come in, please."

"Of course, Captain."

Steve headed into his bedroom to hide under his covers until he could get to sleep.

****

Monster opened his eyes and blinked as the not-bad, _nice_ , lady that was pretty like Mommy, but with red hair, touched his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

She rubbed his green hand. "Shh. You didn't do anything to be sorry for, little one." She tugged on his hand. "Can you tell me why you are green today? Steve didn't mention you being green to Clint."

Monster pushed himself up. "We're broken." He pushed at his too big clothes. "You're the Red Liar."

She smiled as she rolled up his sleeves. "Why do you call me that?"

He touched his head. "You're red on top. And you can lie like Liar can. Hulk thought it meant you."

She sat down in front of him. "And who are you? I think I know, but I'd like you to tell me."

Monster frowned. "You won't yell if I say will you?"

"No yelling. Promise."

Monster rubbed at the bottom of his bare foot. "I'm Monster." He bit his lip. "I get yelled at a lot."

"Not here." She turned her head as a man came in from the kitchen. "This is Clint. He won't yell at you either."

Monster nodded. "Hulk says you're not-bad...Nice. He says you are nice."

Clint sat down cups on the table Red Liar was sitting on and then sat down next to them in a chair. "Good to know the Big Guy likes me." He smiled. "Soooo, you're Monster?"

Monster looked down at his hands. "Yes." He peeked at them through his eyelashes. "You aren't going to yell at me?"

Clint shook his head. "Nah. I didn't like yelling at kids." He nudged a cup towards him. "You like hot chocolate?"

Monster looked down into the cup. "I haven't eaten in a long time. That's Allen's duty."

"Uh huh, but you did once?"

Monster shifted. "Before I was bad." He looked between them. "Do you want Allen?"

Clint shook his head. "Hey, no. You can stay if you want."

Monster licked his lips. "I'm tired." He looked around again. "Can I go sleep in Starman's room? He wakes up if bad men come."

They exchanged looks over Monster's head.

Natasha leaned forward. "Starman is pretty tired from guarding you last night."

"Oh." Monster curled in on himself. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, little man, you didn't do anything wrong." Clint knelt down and held out his hand. "How about we take you to Tony and me and Nat-Red Liar will guard you and Tony, how about that?"

Monster bit his lip. "Is there bad men that will come for Tony?"

Clint wiggled his fingers. "If they do we'll stop them."

Monster touched the tip of Clint's fingers. "You don't care that I'm a green monster?"

"Nah." Clint looked at Nat. "Me and Nat, we've seen monsters and you aren't a bad monster."

Monster slipped off the couch and grabbed up the pants, socks, and shoes that had come off him. "Do you know where Tony is?"

Natasha gently took the clothing from Monster. "Here, I'll carry them for you."

****

Tony was deep in frustrating design when JARVIS cut power to the displays. "JARVIS?"

"Sir, Agents Barton and Romanoff are approaching with the Bruce alter, Monster."

Tony rubbed his tired eyes. "Okay. Break time." He went over to the small refrigerator and pulled out one of the pluots. He cut it into pieces as the others came into the workshop. Tony blinked as a tiny green skinned kid peeked out from behind Clint's legs at him.

"Tony, this is Monster."

Tony held out a bite of pluot. "Want to try? Bruce thought I'd like them and he was right."

Monster glanced up at Clint and Natasha before coming around Clint to snatch the pluot and slip under Tony's desk.

Tony popped a bite into his own mouth as he shoved the plate closer to the other adults. "Here."

Natasha took a piece and sniffed it. "What is it?"

"Plout. Sciencey plum apricot thingy."

Clint leaned over to watch Monster lick his. "You okay under there?"

Monster nodded. "Safe."

Tony grimaced. "Right. Hey, kiddo, how are you..." He waved his hand at all of Monster. "...everybody doing?"

Monster shrugged as he licked his pluot piece again. "Banner is worried. I can touch Thomas now." He frowned. "That's bad. I should only touch Allen, Hulk, and Brucey a little."

With a frown, Tony sat down on the floor and pulled the plate down to set between him and Monster. "Thomas scares you?"

Monster nodded.

Tony mimicked him. "How old are you?"

Monster scratched the bottom of his foot. "Does that matter?"

"Might." Tony pushed the plate closer to Monster. "You don't have to tell me. I just wondered since Allen said he was nine."

"Allen's older now. He grew some. I stay the same."

"Do you?" Tony pointed across the workshop. "Dummy has stayed the same age for years."

"Yeah?" Monster craned his neck to look the direction of Tony's pointing. "Does he get yelled at?"

"Sometimes. It is part of his job. He knows it isn't mean yelling."

Monster creeped out towards the plate. "Yelling is always mean."

"Depends on the person yelling, I think." Tony glanced up at Natasha perched on the edge of his desk. "Take her for instance. I yelled at her once."

Monster blinked and looked between them. "Why?"

"Some I was scared, a little mad, and a lot frustrated."

"What's frustrated?"

Tony waggled his hand. "Like mad, but more because something can't get done than just being mad."

"What couldn't you do?"

"Fix this thing that was killing me at the time." Tony tapped his arch reactor. "I fixed it in the end though."

Monster snatched another piece of pluot. "But you won't yell that I'm still the same age now as I've always been?"

"Nope, no yelling today."

"I'm six."

Tony stuck out his hand. "Pleased to meet you, Monster, age six."

Monster giggled and held out a plout slice to Tony's fingers. "Pleased to meet you too, Spaceman."

Tony pushed himself up to his knees. "I'm just going to talk to the assassin twins a minute and I'll be right back. You want some water?"

Monster shrugged.

Tony nodded. "Okay. I'll see if I can find one of the twisty straws for you." He used the corner of his desk to pull himself to his feet and lead the others over to the corner kitchenette. "What the heck?"

Natasha glanced over at Monster peering at Dum-E from under Tony's desk. "He came out while Bruce was asleep."

Clint sighed and rubbed his hand over his mouth. "When he did this to Steve last night he wasn't green or small."

Tony pulled glass water bottles from the fridge and put them on the counter in easy reach of the others. "Okay, and?" He rummaged through several drawers until he came up with twisty straws.

"We convinced him that Steve was too tired to bug and that Nat and me could watch over you and him."

Tony rubbed the back of his neck as Monster edged out from under the desk towards the robots' charging stations. "I...I can't go to bed with a kid. Even if it is Bruce in there somewhere."

Natasha took one of the bottles. "What about a, what is it called...slumber party?"

Tony snapped his fingers. "Ooooh, blanket fort." He headed back over to Monster, straws and two water bottles in hand.

Clint leaned in towards Natasha. "You know Bruce is going to die of embarrassment when he hears about this, right?"

Natasha just smiled.

****


	19. Thor

****

Tony did his best not to freak out when Monster glommed onto his leg and used Tony to shield himself from Butterfingers dragging the couch across the floor of the living room he'd designed with the Hulk in mind. "He wouldn't hurt you."

Monster leaned just enough of his head out from behind Tony's thigh to watch the rearrangement with one eye. "No. Hulk protects me."

Tony hummed at that and shuffled forward as Butterfingers zipped off to help Dum-E with blanket stealing duty. Tony had asked JARVIS for all the team's blankets to give Monster scents that Bruce's body knew.

Monster stuck tight to him as they reached the couch. "Why move the couch?"

Tony eased his hand down Monster's back to get him to come out from behind Tony. "If we're having a slumber party with you then we need enough room for everybody."

Monster frowned. "Captain Steve is too tired."

"Nah." Tony crouched down and started piling pillows into Monster startled arms by pushing the pillow into Monster's chest until he grabbed for it. "He can just yawn and lay down with us out here and go right to sleep, no problem."

Monster frowned down at the pillows in his arms. "I'm not good at being quiet."

Tony stood back up and kept himself between Monster and Dum-E approaching with a blanket in his claw so that Monster didn't have to hide against him again. "I get that."

Monster blinked. "Really?"

"Yep." Tony gently pulled pillows from Monster and put those down next. "I suck at being quiet."

"Huh." Monster knelt on one of the pillows. "Who protects you?"

Tony's breath caught for a bare moment before he could make himself move to shoo Butterfingers around the end of the couch. "JARVIS, mostly."

"You are too kind, sir."

Monster giggled as he stuffed his hands over his mouth and hunched down to make himself smaller.

Tony mentally winced at the sight of it. "Hey, it's alright to laugh. Remember we have Agent Red Liar between us and the elevator, Birdbrain is getting Captain Steve for us, and who does that leave?"

Monster dropped his hands to his knees and bit his lip. "Shouty Longhair."

"Ooooh." Tony threw a sheet over Butterfinger's arm and slapped the small magnet into place to hold the sheet. He went around the couch to repeat the whole thing with Dum-E and the other end of the clamped together sheets. "That's why you are scared of him."

Monster ducked his head. "He's...loud." He tightened his hold on his knees. "Sorry."

Tony rubbed hard at his face since the sheet roof was in between him and Monster for the moment. He shook his head when Natasha raised an eyebrow at him from where she stood by the elevator. Tony knelt down and peered into the big space under the sheet. "Monster, Thor is...He grew up in a place where he had to be boisterous to be considered important. That's...hard to unlearn."

Monster cocked his head and then nodded. "Right, like I can't learn not to make Daddy mad."

Tony scrunched his nose. "Sort of, yeah." He stood back up and started adding blanket walls to the sheet roof with clamps taken from his workshop.

Monster stuck his head out of the one side that Tony wasn't walling up so everyone had a bailout if they needed it. The fact that it faced the elevator was pure coincidence and Tony would never claim anything less.

"Do we have to invite him?"

Tony deliberately didn't look towards Natasha as he touched Monster slow and gentle with his fingertips. "He never got to have a slumber party when he was a boy."

Monster blinked. "Really? He's a prince though. Banner said."

"I never got a slumber party either." Tony tapped his finger on the tip of Monster's shoulder. "What about you, Red Liar? You weren't even sure about the name of it, were you?"

Natasha appeared at his elbow and shoved Tony towards the kitchen. "Thor will like popcorn. Go make some."

Monster watched Tony until the door to the hallway closed behind him. "Why did you make him leave?"

"You hide when you cry, yes?"

Monster looked up at her and frowned.

Natasha sat down on the floor near him, but out of reach to hit him without leaning. "You hide because you don't want anyone to see. Tony needed to cry and he was desperate not to let you see."

Monster looked at the door and then stared fiercely at Natasha. "Why would he cry about me not wanting to invite Shouty Longhair?"

Natasha shook her head. "It wasn't about invites. He needed to cry because you are scared of someone that would break the world for you if you were hurt. You are a part of the man that Tony would destroy the galaxy for, if it would help Bruce, and you mention things that give him chucks of a picture to show him just _how_ you were hurt when he wasn't able to help you."

Monster dove for cover behind her as the elevator dinged.

****

Steve stared down his body at Clint standing at the end of his bed, covering his eyes with his hand as Steve's bedcovers fell from Clint's other hand. "It's your own fault."

"You're wearing _Hulk_ boxers, Steve."

Steve got out of bed and picked up his covers from where they'd pooled at Clint's feet from Clint yanking them off the bed. "You don't have a kink about my boxers, do you?"

Clint sputtered as he dropped his hand. "You...you are messing with me, aren't you?"

Steve shrugged as he pulled a shirt out from his undershirt drawer. "Only sometimes." He turned as he put on the undershirt. "What's happening? Why didn't you just ask JARVIS to get me?"

Clint shrugged and turned a little away. "I needed a minute. Monster is out, green and small."

Steve blinked. "Where..."

"He and Tony are transforming the common living room into a blanket fort." Clint blinked as he took a gulping breath.

Steve put his hand on Clint's shoulder. "You need to cry?"

Clint shook his head. "It's too hard for me to cry. I just...He's so small. Six years old he said. He's hiding from Tony's bots and is so worried about asking you to join us because Nat and I suggested you were tired from last night, which now I'm thinking was a bad move..."

Steve pulled him into a hug. "Okay, it's okay. You aren't making anything worse." He let Clint tremble against his shoulder. "Just no sex talks with Bruce's alters is all I ask."

Clint huffed a pained laugh against Steve's shoulder. "You are terrible."

"Sometimes." Steve let Clint pull away in his own time. "I was a soldier, after all."

Clint sniffed hard as he ran his hands over his face. "I know." He watched Steve step into a pair of Hulk pajama pants. "You know Tony will never let this go, right?"

"He won't say anything in front of Monster."

"Probably. Maybe." Clint lifted an eyebrow as Steve pulled on an Iron Man shirt. "Seriously?"

Steve looked down at himself. "What? I know the colors clash, but this way Bruce won't have to be the only one embarrassed by the whole thing later."

Clint cocked his head. "That doesn't actually work if you aren't embarrassed, Steve."

"Neither Tony or Bruce need to know I'm not embarrassed. See?"

"Oh, yesh, we'll see how long that lasts." Clint followed Steve out into his living room and leaned sideways as Sarah came from her docking station in the corner. "You really okay with the tracking thing?"

Steve shrugged as he lead them into the elevator. "Howard would have put a beacon on me if the technology had been far enough along. He was a lot like Tony in that respect. He needed to know his people were as okay as he could make them." He sighed. "Not that you'll ever compare them in Tony's hearing."

"JARVIS' hearing is more or less Tony's hearing, you know."

Steve looked at Clint. "JARVIS is like Tony in wanting to watch over those that are his to protect, aren't you, JARVIS?"

"I have many protection protocols, Captain."

"Uh huh. And I bet some of the ones focused on keeping Tony safe could be called Skynet by certain less enlightened people."

Clint leaned against the elevator's wall in the following silence. "I knew starting with Terminator was a bad idea."

"Showed how time travel still results in the future you were working to avoid, didn't it?"

Clint rubbed his fingers across his forearm. "You really thought it'd doom someone that was already gone once you woke up from the ice?"

Steve hit the stop button. "Natasha already got after me for not saying anything after we'd won that first time."

"Not where I was going with that."

Steve leaned his shoulder against the wall opposite Clint and waved Sarah out of their line of sight on each other. He frowned. "Clint, I have watched every time travel movie, show, read every theory, everything I could find after the attempted invasion. I have reasons why I didn't say anything until Dr. Green said I could."

Clint straightened up from his slouch. "More reasons than you've already said."

"Yes. Bruce feels out of control. The alters keep saying he is broken, don't they?"

Clint nodded.

Steve nodded in return. "They never say that in the past. Not once, Clint."

Clint frowned. "That's...but...well, shit." He took a breath. "Is it something we fix up here before he goes back?"

"I don't know." Steve crossed his arms. "I don't think so given the alters I dealt with back then. Not with the way Tony was worrying in his message to me."

Clint thunked his head against the elevator wall. "Fuck."

"I would have gone right by the case except it said Stark in big letters on the side. Then it surprised me because it started playing Tony's message as soon as I touched it."

"He included video of you didn't he?"

Steve shallowed. "He lied to me. Showed me a few seconds of me, him, and Bruce with normal skin with Dum-E moving in the background." 

"How is that a lie?"

Steve hit the button to start the elevator again. "It just was."

They emerged from the elevator and watched as Monster dove behind Natasha, sitting in front of a blanket contraption with Dum-E peeking out from under one corner.

Steve waved and smiled at Monster as his eyes appeared around Natasha's shoulder. "Hi."

Monster waved a little. "Hi." He looked from Steve to Clint and back again. "I'm sorry we made you tried."

Steve knelt down next to them, keeping Natasha between himself and Monster. "You didn't make me tired. I promise."

Monster blinked. "Promises are for babies."

Tony guffawed from behind Steve. "Big babies, sure. Are you seriously wearing that to Monster's invite-only slumber party, Capsicle?"

Steve winked at Monster and then turned, making himself blush by pulling up the memory of every time he'd thought about sex around other people. "Uhm, I...thought Monster might like them."

Monster stood up from behind Natasha. "I think they are cool."

Clint snorted and pulled the bowl of popcorn from Tony's hands. "Have we decided on a movie?"

Monster frowned. "We have to have to go to a movie?"

Clint exchanged looks with Tony before squatting down in the mouth of the sheet tent. "Monster, do you share memory from Bruce on this living room and Bruce watching that TV show _Leverage_ with us?"

Monster squinted at him as he edged around Natasha. "That was TV though."

Clint made a so-so motion with one hand. "Movies work the same way unless they are very new."

"Oh." Monster watched Clint from the corner of his eye as he went by Clint to plop on a big pillow in the exact middle, as far from each end where the bots stood as possible. "Can...can we watch a girl movie?"

Clint pushed the popcorn bowl forward until it touched the pillow Monster had chosen as he felt Natasha go rigid at his back. He started to ask Monster what a 'girl' movie was when Tony crawled in beside them.

"Sure, if Thor can come play too."

Monster frowned and crossed his arms. "That's bribing."

Tony shifted so he was leaning against the couch sideways so he could see Monster and the projection screen. "Might be, but it is unfair not to invite him, don't you think?"

Steve could see Tony soften his expression as Monster huffed. He knelt in the entrance to their pillow land next to Natasha. "We didn't invite the whole team?"

Tony winkled his nose at Steve over Monster's bent head. "Monster says Thor is Shouty Longhair."

Steve blinked and then it clicked and he had to bite the inside of his cheek not to smile. He ducked down to look Monster in the eye like he found difficult to accomplish with Bruce. "How about we put me between you and Thor?"

Monster grinned, nodded, and then turned to frown a Tony. "I still get to watch a girl movie, right?"

"Said so, didn't I?" Tony leaned into the couch as Clint slipped past him to stretch out on the couch behind them. Monster tensed until Clint crossed his arms and tucked his feet behind another pillow as Natasha leaned back into them.

Monster huffed. "Alright." He curled up on his pillow and held very still.

Steve tried to smile reassuringly as Tony asked JARVIS to ask Thor to come down to their floor.

****

Thor carefully shifted his clothing from the jeans that Jane liked on him very well indeed, to the soft pants used on Midgard for sleeping without giving others an 'eyeful' as Anthony had called it. He did the same for the Midgard version of a tunic to the long sleeved version for sleeping without a covering.

He moved Mjolnir to sit by the window that Anthony had made to open for her should Thor call on her presence. "Friend JARVIS do you know of a thanking gift I could acquire to give to the Doctor's small werechild?"

Thor carefully shut the door that connected his small mead hall to Jane's room of knowledge, went out of his mead hall to the lift's entry, and waited for the lift's doors to open.

"I believe that a soft object would be best to present to the Doctor's child alter."

Thor hummed as the lift doors opened. He touched the button for the floor that held Darcy's rooms that Anthony had given her with a threat to never bring her 'iPod' into his Tower ever again. Thor still wasn't certain what the tiny object had done to so upset Anthony. He had decided it had probably asked JARVIS a question in the wrong language and brought dishonor on itself in doing so.

Darcy squinted at him as he smiled down at her. "I thought we said you can't leave Jane without proper jeans or armor." She waved a hand at his soft sleeping pants.

"I am invited to a sleeping party with my chosen clanmates." He frowned. "I wish to take a gift to the werechild, Monster. Friend JARVIS has proposed a softness be found for him."

Darcy blinked. "Uhm. J, can you translate for me?"

"Prince Odinson has been invited to a slumber party for the child alter of Dr. Banner. I have suggested a soft object be acquired to given as the gift."

"Ooooh." Darcy nodded and grabbed up a bag from the inside of her doorway. "I got an extra so I could tease the Doc with it, but the little kid version of him would probably like it." She came back up with a plush Hulk. "Here you go."

Thor blinked down at the Hulk doll. "The color is not correct to the Doctor's warrior guise."

Darcy snorted. "I'm pretty sure no one was willing to do a color check for it."

Thor turned it over, checking the doll carefully. He smiled at Darcy. "I am in your debt."

She smiled. "You can just take it off whatever honor-y list you've got going for us because of me tasing you."

Thor nodded and took the doll with him as he went back to the lift.

****

Monster was careful to be quiet and still as the adults settled around him. They were all...nice, yes, nice about tucking their arms in or wrapping up in blankets so they couldn't hit him without warning. Monster felt for Hulk at the edge of his mind. _Shouty Longhair won't hit us?_

Hulk wrapped him in the feeling of a hug. _Team no hit Hulk now unless is spar-play._

 _I'm not you._ Monster scooted closer to Tony as the elevator doors opened to let out Shouty Longhair, who was carrying something greenish in his arms.

Shouty Longhair knelt down at the edge of the sheet tent. "Werechild Monster, I would ask for welcome in your _tjald_." He pushed the green thing closer.

Monster tilted his head and figured out the green thing was a small Hulk. "My what?" He glanced at Tony.

Steve leaned forward and snagged the toy to pull it in and look it over before putting it down in front of him. "I think he means the sheets and blankets."

"Oh." Monster looked at Shouty Longhair patiently watching. He squinted. "No hitting or shouting?"

Shouty Longhair blinked and slowly shook his head. "I will be silent if you but ask it of me."

Monster frowned. _What do you think?_

It felt like Hulk came closer to Monster's back. _Silence is mean._

Monster straightened up and pulled the Hulk toy to himself. "No being silent. We aren't mean." He turned the toy over carefully. "Thank you for this."

Thor smiled as he shifted to sit on the other side of Steve from Monster. "I am told we are to watch a moving drawing."

Monster looked to Tony.

Tony sighed as he stretched out a slow hand to pet the hair of the Hulk toy. "Yes, animation. Monster wants to watch _Cinderella_ and no, Thor you may not get mad at the stepmother."

Monster giggled and settled against Tony and pulled Steve close to his other side.

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tjald is a word for tent. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tjald#Old_Norse) I decided the sheet walls would remind Thor of tents, so there you go.
> 
> Monster calling Cinderella a "girl movie" is an internalized insult from having been yelled at for wanting to watch the movie as a child by Bruce's father, who, in my headcannon, considered anything to do with princesses too girly for his son to watch.


	20. Hulk

****

Natasha had silences for everything. She knew what being silent so no one would hurt you looked like and it _hurt_ to see it on the tiny form of Bruce curled between Stark and Rogers as the movie played. Clint brushed the back of her forearm as he reached for the popcorn bowl. She glanced at him and he was making his everything is fine face that meant he was one step from tears.

She shifted slowly so Monster wouldn't jump again and put more of her thigh against Clint's. The hitched breath she got in return was tell enough that she didn't need to move closer him for the time being.

If asked, Natasha would normally say that she never felt the need to look into the past and want to kill people that had hurt her since it wouldn't change anything about her present. Now, though, with Bruce's normal life pulled apart by his attempt to protect Steve, Natasha wanted to rip every adult that had never helped child Bruce to shreds with her bare hands.

Stark tilted his head down and muttered to Monster he was going to use the restroom and he promised to be right back. 

Natasha saw it as soon as Stark started to push himself up. His foot caught in the edge of one of the blankets and he failed as he started to fall onto Monster. Natasha shot out her hand and grabbed his arm as Monster flinched and brought his hand up to shield himself from them with a chocked gasp.

****

Hulk huffed as he held Spaceman and Red Liar by their arms. _No hurt you._

Monster shivered in the back of Hulk's mind and refused to answer. Thomas shoved at them both and Hulk snorted as he shoved back.

"Uh, Big Guy?"

Hulk narrowed his eyes as the Spaceman's smell filled his nose. "Hurt?"

Red Liar was holding very still and watching him with wide eyes as Spaceman waved his free hand.

"No, we're good. You could even set us down." Spaceman raised his eyebrows. "Please?"

Hulk lowered them and let Red Liar slip away to be hugged by Cupid as Hulk kept Spaceman close with his thumb and finger holding the back of Spaceman's shirt. "Hurt?"

"Uh, no." Spaceman looked at the rest of Team. "Didn't I just answer that one?"

Starman stepped closer and looked up at Hulk. "What hurt do you mean, Hulk?"

Hulk snorted and watched out of the corner of his eye as Red Liar jerked her head around to watch him from Cupid's arms. "Spaceman smell sad and wet."

"Wet?" Spaceman narrowed his eyes. "I'm most definitely not wet."

Starman shook his head. "No, I think...tears. I think he means he can smell your tears from earlier on you."

Spaceman jerked and Hulk felt Spaceman's shirt start to give as he tried to pull away. "I haven't been crying. That's just hearsay."

Starman shook his head. "Tony, no know is going to tease you for needing to cry."

Shouty Longhair pulled Spaceman into a one arm hug. "Never doubt that tears are a warrior's due, Anthony."

Spaceman sighed. "Look, never mind me." He twisted in his clothing to put his hand on Hulk's. "How is Monster?"

Hulk frowned and let go of Spaceman's shirt. "He sorry for mess."

Starman patted Hulk's arm. "Tell him there's nothing to be sorry for. He can come back out and finish the movie if he wants."

Hulk shook his head. "No." He grinned at Starman's frown. "Later." Hulk turned towards Red Liar. "No hurt?"

She shook her head. "No, you didn't hurt me."

Hulk grunted and flopped over, letting himself relax as he hit the floor of blankets and pillows they'd laid out for Monster.

****

Bruce shivered as he woke up on a pile of pillows with the shreds of a shirt falling off himself and Steve spreading a blanket across him. "What the hell?"

Tony crowded in close and Bruce had one of his flashes of memory like he'd get from the other guy, but this time from a lower height than Hulk's normal viewpoint. Bruce squinted as Clint held out his glasses to him.

He took the glasses and put them on as Tony hovered, kneeling, keeping himself still, but hovering in that way he had that made Bruce wonder if Tony needed a hug or thought Bruce needed one. "Uh, why is the other guy feeling guilty?"

Clint appeared at Bruce's elbow and tipped Tony off his knees to lean against Bruce's shoulder. "You remember how you can downsize as well as upsize now?"

Bruce wrapped his arm around Tony to hold him in place as he buried his face in the side of Bruce's neck. "Yes."

Clint nodded and took a blanket from Steve to wrap around Tony and Bruce both. "A child sized alter was out and he got scared when Tony tripped and started to fall on him. Hulk came out to protect the child and Nat got in the middle because she reached out to catch Tony."

Bruce blinked as he matched that up to the bits of memory he had. "Were we having a slumber party?"

Tony pressed his forehead tighter against Bruce's skin. "Cap is even wearing pj's."

Bruce frowned at Steve as he shrugged.

Thor held out a plush Hulk toy towards him. "This belongs to your werechild."

Blinking, Bruce took the toy and tucked it into Tony's folded arms. "Thanks, Thor."

****

Steve gently herded, tugged, and pushed his various teammates until everyone was gathered back around the pile of blankets that contained Bruce and Tony. Steve settled near, but not touching as JARVIS started another animated movie on a low volume.

Bruce reached out and pulled Steve in against the side not claimed by Tony. "Thank you."

Steve blinked as he cocked his head. "For what?"

Bruce smiled softly and patted Steve's shoulder before waving a hand at the clothes Steve had on. "You never wear merchandise, Steve."

Steve glanced down at himself. "Oh." He shrugged. "I just thought...well..."

Bruce patted him again. "Thank you for the thought, Steve."

Steve sighed and leaned against Bruce as the movie's main title gave way to the start of the story.

****

Bruce smiled to himself as Steve fell asleep on his shoulder. Tony was already asleep against Bruce's other side. Instead of feeling the need to extract himself, Bruce found he liked being between them. He wasn't sure how he was going to repair the mess that had become of his head, but at least now he was fairly certain that the Hulk wouldn't hurt any of the team.

****

Clint kept skin contact with Natasha as she forced herself to settle back on the couch behind the mountain of blankets that Thor had layered around the budding threesome. Clint stroked his finger down Natasha's elbow and smiled at her glance. "Okay?"

She frowned and shrugged as Bruce started to snore. "The transformation was very swift."

Clint nodded. "He went from tiny to Hulk in about point six seconds according to Dummy's video of it."

She squinted at him. "You get Dummy's video?"

Clint grinned as Sarah shifted from the arm of the couch to the floor next to Steve's knees. "The bots like me."

"Hmm." She leaned against his side as Thor checked them and then turned his attention back to the movie. "You think everything likes you."

"Depends on the degree of like, but yeah, of course." He considered the quick jab to his shoulder a win. Clint leaned his head against the top of Natasha's head where she was resting against him. "I'm good like that." He let himself drift off as she snorted at his dumb remark, just like he had wanted her to.

****


	21. Tony

****

Bruce woke up with a headache and the faint sounds of a fight in the back of his head. Frowning, Bruce tried to concentrate enough to make out what, _who_ , was arguing, but the awareness disappeared as soon as Bruce focused harder.

Huffing, Bruce sat up and found the living room mostly back in proper order. The bots were gone along with the sheet tent and everyone except Tony had vacated as well.

Tony was curled up beside him with the blankets wrapped over him enough to hide Tony completely from sight. Bruce gently tugged them away from Tony's head since he knew Tony hated waking up to something covering his face.

The plush Hulk toy fell out of the blankets from under Tony's chin. Bruce winced as one of the alters _shoved_ on him.

"It's okay." Bruce tucked the toy back into the corner of Tony's elbow. The feeling in Bruce's head settled back down as he watched Tony sleep. Bruce looked up as Steve came in from the kitchen.

"Morning."

Bruce smiled at the plain clothes Steve had changed into. "Morning, Steve."

Steve handed him a cup of coffee and lifted his chin towards Tony. "He's taking this hard."

Nodding, Bruce took a sip from his cup. "He knows my condition is degrading."

Steve knelt down and then settled crossed legged near them. "We figure out how to stabilize you."

"Steve..." Bruce soothed a hand down Tony's arm as it tightened around the Hulk toy.

"We must." Steve sighed. "You weren't jumbled back then."

Bruce nodded and leaned back against the couch behind him. "Alright. We'll figure it out."

Tony jerked upright. "Shit." He blinked down at the toy in his arms and shoved it at Steve. "I got it." He leaned over, kissed Bruce on the temple, and scrambled out of the tangle of blankets. He kissed Steve on the cheek as he took the Hulk toy back from Steve and hurried to the elevator.

Steve stared, dumbfounded, as the elevator doors slipped closed after Tony. He turned towards Bruce. "What was that?"

Bruce smiled and took another sip of his coffee. "Looked like a kiss to me." He patted Steve on the shoulder. "He can be pretty affectionate when he's still half-asleep."

Steve frowned and sat down on the couch as Bruce pulled himself up from the floor. "I..." He frowned as he trailed off.

Bruce yawned and used his feet to pull the abandoned blanket up until he could reach it. "You're sure I wasn't going crazy and just not saying anything when I'm in the past?"

"I'm sure." Steve smoothed the edge of the blanket. "You, he," Steve sighed. "Bucky liked you, even Dr. Green, when he wasn't letting any doctor near him because of Zola."

Bruce nodded. "He had every right to be wary."

Steve's expression went hard for a moment. "I wish he'd told me what was going on with him before he fell."

"What do you mean?"

Sighing, Steve rubbed his hand over the back of his head. "I know he ran a fever for almost a month after I got him out. He couldn't sleep well and he was really careful about what he ate."

Bruce frowned. "Careful?"

Steve nodded. "I had trouble with spoiling food, which was sometimes all we could get ahold of when we were behind enemy lines. I didn't say anything, but it was really hard to choke down some of it. Bucky...he didn't eat in front of us much. He'd get his share and go find a lookout point. I'm pretty sure he wasn't eating it."

"Was he losing weight?"

"He might have been." Steve pushed himself up. "I don't know why...Nevermind. It doesn't matter now."

Bruce caught Steve's hand. "Steve, he probably didn't want to worry you."

Steve hung his head. "I know. I just...he was hurting."

"Some people hide when they are hurting and there's nothing you could have done if he didn't want help."

Steve shook his head as he pulled his hand gently from Bruce's hold. "There's always something." He headed for the kitchen with Sarah floating at his back.

****

Tony turned a wrench over and over in his hand as he stared at the nearly completed time machine. "He said it was a box that responded to him, J?"

"Yes, sir."

Tony nodded. "Okay, that's simple enough. Small arc hardwired in for the energy...simple bioscanner...Did he say what I said in the message exactly?"

"He did not. He indicated that you were expressed worry as to Dr. Banner's condition."

Tony frowned at that. "Uh. Okay, mention Bruce, I can do that, no problem." He shooed Dum-E away from the couplings at the base of the machine. "Simulations still come out with Bruce dead?"

"There is still a high probability of that occurrence."

Tony cracked his neck. "You know I hate it when you're being vague to spare my feelings." He fussed with a connection until he realized JARVIS hadn't quipped at him. "J?"

"The search for information on your special project has completed."

Tony stood up so fast his head swam. "Am I right?"

"It appears so, sir."

Tony blew out a breath. "Well, shit." He kicked parts out of his way as he went to his desk. "Do you have a current location on him?"

"I am currently isolating a tracker implanted in his arm."

Nodding, Tony took a sip of his cold coffee. "Get as much of their records on what they've done to him as possible. We can't tell the others until I can point Steve at a clear plan to get Barnes out alive."

"It appears he has been brainwashed."

"Of course he has." Tony pulled up a box template and started dropping in the components he needed to make a message keyed to Steve. "J, pull down a good voice print of Steve and compress it for me."

Tony watched the indicated file pop up on the sidebar ready to copy to the box's memory during fabrication.

****


	22. Past Barnes

****

_Howard Stark's work area, forward operating base, WWII_

Howard frowned as Barnes settled on the corner of his desk. "What's wrong with your weapon?"

Bucky's eyebrows rose. "I don't always visit you for weapons, Howie."

"True." He leaned back in his chair. "How's Steve?"

"Fine."

Howard cocked his head. "You?"

Bucky shrugged. "Fine."

"Un huh." Howard waved a hand at Bucky's rumpled appearance. "You look like you just came out of the field, but your squad has been back three days now."

Bucky looked down at himself. "I'm..." He frowned at Howard. "I think I...Do you know anything about what... _he_ did to me?"

Howard slowly leaned forward. "I might." He gently laid his hand on Bucky's forearm. "You remember anything?" He knew Barnes had said he couldn't remember for the report, but that was for a file after all.

Bucky let himself slid down the side of the desk to curl on the floor. "I...don't want to, but..." He looked up at Howard. "All of it."

Nodding slowly, Howard knelt next to Barnes. "Okay."

"I...need to know what it does." Bucky rubbed his hands across the top of his knees. "I'm not bigger or better like Stevie. I'm...Schmidt turned red, but I didn't, so..." He looked at Howard with tears forming up, before tucking his head into his arms. "Sorry." He started to push himself up. "I shouldn't be bothering you."

Howard grabbed Bucky's calf. "Hey."

Bucky stopped partway crouched. "What?"

"Sit down." Howard waited until Bucky settled back against the desk. "Listen here, Barnes. You are a good man. You won't turn red like Schmidt. I don't think you got a big enough dose to beef up like Rogers." He rubbed small circles on Bucky's shoulder. "You're stronger. Faster. Even your thinking is faster. Your senses are sharper."

Bucky's breathing started to grow ragged. "I'm a monster."

"Hey, hey." Howard made Bucky look at him. "You are no monster." He pulled Barnes against his side. "It isn't your fault what he did to you."

He tucked his face against Howard's shoulder. "Why'd he pick me?"

Howard soothed Bucky as best he could. "You were just the next man in the cell. He was going to go through all of them, Barnes. You know that."

"I know." He pulled away and wiped at his face with his sleeve. "Don't...please, don't tell Steve about...this."

"Of course not." Howard frowned as Bucky's eyebrows drew down. "What?"

Bucky rubbed at his ear. "Something sounds off."

There was a crash and then cursing from the far corner. Howard and Bucky peeked over Howard's desk to see a man groggily sitting in the wreckage of a filing cabient. 

Bucky was up and over the desk with his sidearm pointed at the newcomer. "Who are you?"

The man sat up and rubbed at his own cheek. "Well, fuck."

Howard eased up to stand next to Bucky. "How'd you get in here?"

The man looked up at them with one eye squinted nearly closed. "Wow, that's just...creepy." He showed his empty hands to them. "Kindly don't shoot me. It shouldn't last long. Definitely, don't describe me to Steve. It'll screw up the...Yeah, Doctor Who should really invent tenses for this."

Dimly, as though down a long corridor, they heard another voice. "Tony!"

The man winced. "That'd be Bruce." He looked at Bucky. "Please, and trust me I don't use that word often, pick up Bruce from the HYDRA base you find him in. He'll have green skin." He looked at Howard. "Say, what's the date?"

"I'm not giving you any information until you tell me how you got in here."

"Eh." He nodded at them. "Okay, that's fair. You won't believe me though."

"Tony?"

The man tipped his head back and yelled at the ceiling. "I'm fine, Bruce. Just testing!"

Howard narrowed his eyes. "Testing?"

With a grin, the man waggled his eyebrows at them. "Well, yeah. Not like I'm going to throw Bruce through time without at least testing if it'll work or not." He frowned slightly. "Hey, could I get a blood vial from Barnes?"

"What?" Howard stepped forward and crowded in front of Bucky. He didn't get Bucky's line of fire, but he did his best to cut off the strange man's sightline to Bucky. "Hell no."

"It's important for Steve's health. The serums are different, but they were developed from the same base idea. I've got a few things I'm working on, but I need a sample of Barnes' blood to confirm."

Bucky shifted behind Howard. "You know Steve?"

"Sure do." He eased more upright. "I'm from the future and I don't have anything I can use to convince you...no, no, wait." He wrinkled his nose as he thought. "Nope, never mind. That'd be a bad idea to mention and you always said you didn't know Mom's name beforehand."

Howard glanced over his shoulder at Barnes. "What do you think?"

Barnes frowned. "He smells...weird."

The man grinned harder. "Probably all the plastics in my shoes, the microfiber base layer I've got on, or the light armor layer I'm wearing over that."

Barnes pulled Howard with him as he started to back up. "Who are you?"

"I'm Anthony Edward Stark." His watch started to beep. "There's my ride." He pointed at Howard. "Seriously, Dad. Blood from Barnes. Send it along with Bruce or something. It'll be important lat..."

Howard tried to follow as the colors bled hard across the area. Barnes shoved them both down and away from the commotion. By the time they sat back up, there was no evidence there'd been anyone else there, except for the broken filing cabinet strewn across the floor.

****

The Colonel wasn't pleased with either of them. "And then he just," He waved his hand. "Disappeared?"

Howard shrugged. "That's about the size of it." He'd left out the bit about Barnes' blood. The man was enough on edge without making it worse.

Steve leaned against the map table. "He said he was related to you?"

Howard rubbed the back of his neck. "He called me 'dad' at one point."

Agent Carter pursed her lips. "He didn't happen to say where or when this Bruce gentleman would come along?"

Barnes made a face. "Nope. He asked the date, so it could be he would have, but we didn't give him any information."

Steve turned and looked at the map. "We'd better step up the next raid."

Colonel Phillips sighed. "Fine. Why not throw a carefully scheduled plan into disarray?" He stepped up to the map. "Where'd that para your squad cut out of that tree on your way back last time say he was supposed to head for?"

Steve pointed at the map. "There. James thinks his brother might be a prisoner there. I convinced him we'd help him look as soon as he could walk."

"Well, tomorrow will just have to work for you. I saw him walking at chow a couple of hours ago." He waved his hand to include Howard and Carter. "Agent Carter stay with Stark. I don't want another strange man appearing in his area without having someone trained to fight with him while the Commandos are off base."

"Yes, sir."

"Stark, do your best to figure out if you can stop said strange men from appearing."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Rogers, take that crazy para and your men and go burn down another HYDRA base for me. Take your time about it and see if you can locate the para's brother."

"Thank you, sir."

Colonel Phillips sighed. "Don't thank me, son. Just don't die. I do not want to have to tell the President that I've lost Captain America, am I understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Get out of my tent, all of you."

****

They were cold and wet by the time they reached the target. Three days of backtracking through the forest to keep the enemy guessing had left Bucky ready to find a quiet corner to curl up in. He found himself a good vantage point to cover his squad as they approached the base.

The wind was howling along, but Bucky thought he could still make out what Steve as saying down there if he concentrated enough. He shivered as Howlett tore through the front guard with only the bone spikes sticking out from his fists.

Bucky picked off a couple of guards were needed as they cleared the front motorpool area leading into the main building of the base. He lined up target after target and tried to keep himself from thinking too hard.

****

Steve followed James Howlett through the doors of the base. He paused along the wall as the rest of his men gathered up. "Let's clear the building. If you find Howlett's brother be careful."

"Claws. Yeah, Cap. We remember." Gabe slipped past and secured the hallway Howlett had disappeared down. "Cap, you talked to the Sarge about his fever lately?"

Steve frowned. "Still? I thought it'd gone down." He moved to cover the other corner as they waited to see if they got any enemy activity.

"Still. He slept in a snowbank yesterday while you and Howlett were scouting."

"I'll talk to him." Steve moved back towards the main door as Dum Dum proceeded Bucky through the door. "Bucky, with me. We'll take right. Everyone else, pairs, you know the drill."

Steve watched them moved out, leapfrogging down the corridors. "Fever?"

Bucky scrubbed his hand over his face. "Not now, Captain."

"Later then." He clapped Bucky on the shoulder. "We'll make it better, Buck. You'll be fine."

Bucky held himself tight, but at least he nodded. "Sure."

****

Clearing a building took time. It was tedious and boring, except for the moments of terror when someone started shooting at them. Bucky followed Steve until they hit a room too much like the one where he'd...Bucky leaned against the wall as Steve told him to wait.

"You need backup."

Steve pushed him back against the wall again. "I'll be fine. Stay here and cover the hallway."

Bucky knew they both knew the hallway was clear. "Alright." He grabbed Steve's harness near the shield. "Be careful."

With a wide grin, Steve patted his shoulder. "Always."

Bucky shook his head as Steve went into the room. He listened hard as Steve's near silent movements slowly faded.

"Buck!"

He jerked and peered around the corner into the room. Steve was on the far side. "What?"

Steve looked at him over his shoulder. "What color did he say the Bruce guy was going to be?"

"Green. Why?"

Steve hefted a person and turned towards Bucky. "Found him." He towards Bucky slowly. "Feels more like Buck Rogers around here every day."

Bucky snorted and forced himself to look over the thin, green skinned man. "He breathing?"

"Yeah." Steve shifted the man in his arms. "Ready?"

He wasn't really, but they didn't have the luxury to just hang around until he was. "Ready."

****


End file.
